Flame Awakening Advent
by Bluebottlejr
Summary: A shadow of the past is seeping into the current era of Gamindustri, all at the behest of an unknown entity. Into this mix comes a fabled Guild Agent, who becomes what she never intended to be, a kindhearted nurse, and a strange archer. As tensions rise and the stakes become higher all hopes lay upon a mysterious Flame Awakening Goddess Slayer, but no one knows what one is.
1. A Day in the Life of a Guild Agent

**Flame Awakening Advent**

 **Chapter 1: A Day in the Life of a Guild Agent**

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 **A/N: So, here I am again with another Neptunia fanfic, some things never change it seems. I really need to broaden myself across the fanfic site a little more, maybe I should get that Fairy Tail fanfic stated, and maybe even that Monster Musume one started later, then there is that Neptunia-Fallout crossover, not to mention a fanfic with a senile old man who's childish as hell, plus I've gotta update The Wandering CPU at some point. Damn, there's so much I want to do! Anyway, this is a story that I had on the sidelines for a couple of months now, been neglecting it for even longer than that though; I did promise to write a story with IF in it, and I aim to keep it. I'll be updating this story whenever I have the chance, and whenever I'm having Writer's Block with my other fanfics. Some chapters will be shorter than others, some will be longer than others, some chapters will have two to three thousand words while others will have six to eight thousand – my poor brain. Also, this fanfic will contain references from other fictional books, movies and whatnot, thought I might point that out beforehand. Regardless, enough blabbing about and making up excuses for my actions. Enjoy.**

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The sun rose over the eastern horizon of Gamindustri, the stars disappeared in the bright morning sky and the clouds spaced out into smaller groups, it appeared that the day was going to be a good one, climate wise anyway. In this particular city in a certain carefree country there resided one of the most fabled and popular Guild Agents throughout the four nations of Gamindustri, and at that moment of time this fabled Guild Agent was fast asleep in her bed, lost in a dream that managed to make her smile, at least partially. The city in which this Guild Agent lived in was simply known as Planeptune, incidentally it also had the same name as the country itself, yet no one really knew why, not even the one who ruled it.

As the city spurred to life, with people walking around or driving their cars, the Guild Agent awoke from her pleasant dream when her alarm clock burst to life, although if one was to ask what her dream had been she could not have told them due to forgetting it immediately after waking up – incidentally this was just one reason why she hated early mornings. The Guild Agent grumbled something about destroying every single alarm clock in Gamindustri as she smashed her right fist against the top of the alarm, silencing it for good. A groan or two later and the Guild Agent emerged out of her bed, her long brown hair stuck up all over the place, dark grey sleep fatigue patches were underneath her emerald green eyes, her face looked as if it had been through hell and back, her posture was a slouching mess and her short blue pyjamas were ruffled.

She walked over the thin black carpet towards her closet and opened it, revealing very little choice in the clothing department, out of the little choices there were only black tank tops and matching pairs of shorts, both seemed a bit small, especially the shorts. Next to them were a few coat hangers with several blue and black coats hanging off them, unlike the tank tops and shorts the coats appeared to be a few sizes too big. Next she reached up to a draw and pulled it open to reveal her bras and panties, she reached into the draw and pulled out a matching set. The Guild Agent sighed and pulled out a black tank top with a grey coloured 'i' imprinted on it, black shorts, a matching belt, a green leaf accessory and a blue coat with black and white lining, the belt had several empty slots where phones were usually kept.

The brown haired woman laid her selected clothing onto the bed and made sure that the blue curtains over the nearby window were closed, then she looked at herself in the mirror that was fixed onto the wall next to the window. She looked long and hard at, unable to decide whether she looked different or not. _I guess I don't look any different than I did several years ago after I left school and became a member of the Guild._ _I wonder what my parents would say if they could see me now?_ She thought to herself as she brushed her hair, cracking her neck and sighed with relief.

The Guild Agent then dismissed the thought and returned to the business at hand. She removed her pyjamas and flung them onto her bed, then the Agent began to put on her chosen attire piece by piece, except for the bra due to her lack of assets which made her think about questioning the whole point of wearing one in the first place, so she threw it aside – it was most likely a dirty attire that needed to be washed anyway. As the Agent did so she could hear the sounds of a few of her neighbours starting to wake up and get out of bed or leaving for work. After the Guild Agent had gotten her clothes on, and adjusted a bright green leaf ornament onto the left side of her head, she made her way out of her room and into the kitchen. The brown haired woman walked over to the white fridge that was located in the corner of her kitchen and opened it, inside there were a variety of different foods and drinks. The Guild Agent pulled out a carton of milk and placed it on the green counter behind her before she went looking through the cupboards for some cereal, which she found. The brown haired yawned loudly and would have most certainly fell back to sleep if it had not been for her room-mate.

A creamy white coloured door opened slowly to reveal the room-mate. It was a woman around the same height or just a bit higher than that of the Guild Agent, but instead of being utterly sleep deprived she appeared to be in good spirits due to the cheerful look in her expression and how her posture was more upright than her friend's. The woman smiled as she passed her friend, who was by now regretting her life choices from last night. "Did you have fun in the Basilicom last night without me, Iffy?" the room-mate asked cheerfully, unaffected by fatigue.

The Guild Agent, Iffy or better known by her real and odd name as IF, glanced over at her room-mate and groaned. "What does it look lie to you? Neptune had me stay up all night just to play games with her and Nepgear, you were lucky to get out of it due to some sort of accident that some person had from being nearly killed by a creature. Be glad you weren't there, Compa, it was tiring."

Compa merely continued to smile as she rummaged through the cream coloured cupboards. "I'm sure you had fun, Iffy, you usually do even though you refuse to admit it."

"Whatever," IF grumbled in response as she poured milk into the bowl of multicoloured cereal. "Anyway, what was the situation at the hospital like yesterday evening? Must've been serious if you were kept there for most of the night."

Compa nodded as she began to plug in the toaster and get some sliced bread ready. "Mhm, that's right. The person, a woman, had been hunting monsters for a few quests that she got from the Guild, when suddenly she was attacked out of the blue."

"By the monsters she was hunting?" IF asked after swallowing some of her breakfast.

The nurse-in-training shook her head. "No, unless this monster had the ability to fire arrows that is. I had to help pull two arrowheads out of her body; one was embedded in her left shoulder while the second was in her lower spine. She isn't going to be walking again for the rest of her life."

IF was in the middle of eating some soggy cereal when Compa added the part where she pulled out the two arrowheads from the monster hunter's body, it did put the Guild Agent off her food. Nevertheless, the hunger that called out from her stomach could not be denied, so the brunette continued to shovel food down her throat. Still, she was intrigued with the news, although for different reasons. "Did you keep the arrowheads?" the emerald green eyed woman asked.

Compa nodded. "I got permission from the higher ups to keep the arrowheads so I could give them to you, they seem to agree that you might be able to see something that they can't. Hold on a sec, I'll be back with them."

Compa left the kitchen and made her way back into her room to fetch the two arrowheads that she recovered from her patient the previous night; IF was silently hoping that the arrowheads had been cleaned and sterilised. After finishing off her breakfast the Guild Agent saw her best friend emerge with the remains of two arrowheads in her right hand, she gave them to the brunette and watched as she began to examine them; IF was silently glad that the arrowheads were indeed clean and sterilised, otherwise she would have had a fit. The fatigued Agent gazed carefully yet wearily at the arrowheads in her right hand, examining every small bit of detail that she could find, yet all that IF could see were two arrowheads made out of steel. This confused her even more than before, and for good reason. The use of bows, crossbows, arrows and bolts was a thing of the past, barely anyone, possibly even no one, used such weapons in the modern day. Even if someone used arrows and a bow it would most likely be made out of some special material and fixed with mechanical parts, even the arrows themselves would have some sort of machinery fixed into it, probably even some sort of energy as well to make the weapon even deadlier. What IF was examining was archaic, which said very little to who could have been the attacker.

The nurse-in-training stared sternly at IF without blinking, waiting patiently for a response. Eventually IF gave them back to Compa, sighing heavily. "Well, I can't make out much from just looking at the arrowheads, except that whoever uses these sorts of arrowheads is living in the past. That's about all I can make of it, Compa. Sorry if you were looking for a better answer than that."

"It's okay, Iffy, I didn't think there could have been much to see from these objects," Compa responded with a smile. Just then the toaster popped out the slices of bread that the light orangey haired woman had put in beforehand, she looked over at it and began to butter the toasted slices up on the kitchen bench, humming away as she did so. Soon afterwards, however, Compa looked over at IF and asked a question. "So, Iffy, what's making you so tired, aside from Nep-Nep making you stay up some of the night for gaming purposes? Were you having another bad dream?"

IF gazed at Compa as if she was crazy; the Agent's eyes widened with shock and her words were mere stutter. "Wh-Wha?! H-H-How did you k-know?"

"You always start mumbling in your sleep whenever you have some sort of bad dream, I could hear it from the other side of the wall in my room. What was it about this time? Was it another dream about some strange humanoid creature, or was it your parents?" Compa asked before munching into her toast.

IF's head sank down, as did her entire posture, she did not want to talk about the subject. "Compa, can we please not talk about it any more? It's my problem, not yours."

The nurse-in-training stared at her friend sternly as she continued to eat her toast while standing up. Eventually, once finished with her meal, she stood right next to the Guild Agent and stared down at her; IF was sitting down on a chair at the nearby dinner table with what was left of her breakfast. "Iffy, you're my best friend as well as my room-mate, so if something effects you it'll effect me. Your happiness is my happiness, your sadness is my sadness. Besides, I'm a nurse-in-training and have some experience with handling patients who have had problems similar to yours. Also, getting off your chest would probably be best for you; keeping it all bottled up will only make things worse."

The brunette stuttered for a moment before sighing in defeat. "Heh, alright then, you win." The emerald green eyed woman straightened her back in the seat and fixed her eyesight upon Compa, ready to tell the nurse-in-training about her dream. "Well, it wasn't about my parents, if it was then I wouldn't tell you. It was about… some weird daemon thing, but it was like a human too. Grey skin, long dark hair, some sort of strange armour, a long spear held in a grey skinned hand, cold eyes… then there was the sky, which was on fire. There was a ruined city nearby in the distance, but it looked different than any city I've seen before, it look like some sort of ancient city. It was like something out of the old tales that I read about. What do you make of it?"

Compa hummed thoughtfully to herself as she sat down next to IF, rubbing her chin while thinking about what could be the problem. "Hmm… I'm not sure what to make of it, it sounds a bit weird. Was there anything else?"

IF nodded. "Yeah, there was one more thing actually. "There was this… person covered in flame, couldn't tell who it was though, not even their gender. Soon afterwards, this flame-covered person leaps into the air and attacks the daemon-looking monster, then came an explosion, and fire. Before I could see anything else that damn alarm woke me up; wouldn't have minded a few extra hours of sleep even if I had to put up with that strange dream."

Compa chuckled, amused with her friend's overall grumpiness due to the lack of proper sleep. "It'll be fine, Iffy, you just wait and see. If it helps, I'll ask some of the doctors and nurses that specialise in psychology for some advice, maybe they can help you out."

This did not seem to go too well with the brunette. The Guild Agent grumbled to herself and sighed deeply, feeling a little frustrated with the whole situation, her words almost distant and sad. "Really, there isn't any need for that, Compa. It would just make me feel like some sort of person with a mental disability; I don't want to be thought of like that again."

It had not been the first time IF had a dream similar to the one she just had, even Compa knew that. The green eyed woman had been having either the same dream or something similar to that all throughout her childhood, teenage years and finally into her young adult life. No one knew why, and no one could understand why it was just her. Sometimes they seemed harmless enough, but at times they made the young woman wake up in the middle of the night with sweat running down her forehead, indicating that something terrible happened in her bad dream. At first, IF made no secret to the odd dreams she had, but after several years of it, and after some bullying, the brunette changed tactics and kept silent about it, even refusing to tell her parents what she saw. During her childhood they were rare and only occurred once every few months a year, but as she grew older the bad dreams continued to plague her at an alarming rate; at one point IF had suffered from bad dreams for an entire week. However, by the time IF had reached her late teenage years she began to suffer less and less from the dreams, until a time occurred when they would appear for years on end. But now it had returned, and IF was not too comfortable knowing it.

Out of all the people who knew about the strange dreams, or at least remembered about it at least, Compa was the one who felt the most defeated by it, knowing that at her level of expertise she was unable to give some sort of advice. It had always been like that, although it appeared that IF had been getting over the nightmares and dreams over the last few years of their high school days. Once they left high school the two best friends had done their best to keep in touch while they pursued their future occupations. Compa had gone to study to be a nurse while IF had gone to the Guild for a part-time job, never knowing that it would later take up her entire life, propelling her to famous heights as the most well respected and famous Guild member of all time. During all that time, however, Compa had not stopped worrying for her best friend.

After IF finished off her cereal, yet still remaining rather tired from fatigue, the nurse-in-training began to look the Guild Agent over, essentially accessing her health with eagle eyes. Before the brunette could even ask what the heck she was doing, Compa stood up and smiled cheerfully at the Agent. "You seem well enough to go out and do a few quests, at least for today anyway. Who knows, maybe a couple of quests might help you out, get some fresh air or something."

IF chuckled as she got up and placed the empty bowl in the kitchen sink. "Heh, not a bad idea, Compa. I might as well see what the Guild as in store for me this time, been a while since they had any decent quests." The Wind Walker of Gamindustri then proceeded towards the front door, stopping only to put her blue boots on. Once IF opened the front door and stepped outside she stopped and looked back at her best friend, a small smile adorned her face. "I'll be back later this afternoon, Compa, that's if I don't run out of things to do, otherwise I'll visit the hospital and see how you're going there. See ya later."

After the two of them waved goodbye, IF closed the door and walked down the street with her hands in the pockets of her jacket, a sense of easiness washed over her. The capital city of Planeptune was rather silent and empty, save for a few cars, motorbikes and even a few groups of people had decided to put all their commitment into their work – which was more than could be said for the patron goddess herself. Planeptune was under the light-heated rule of Neptune, also known as Purple Heart, who was a rather laid-back and a hands off goddess when it came to matter of governance. It was that sort of behaviour which, despite the best attempts of the Oracle of Planeptune, had become a national identity to the Planeptunians, and it was something that they embraced fully for whatever reason. IF did not mind it, in fact the Guild Agent found it rather funny that she, along with a few others, were rather un-Planeptunian.

IF and Compa's house was located in one of the residential suburbs that were located throughout the city, and it was the closest to the centre as well, at least a ten to fifteen minute walk of one was to never have a break. The rent was not exactly cheep, but with the amount of money that the two of them made in their separate professions they could have easily paid off the rent for the next several months without a problem. Working at the Guild had filled her account and pockets with enough coin to last a lengthy amount of time. As IF continued to stroll down the street at a leisurely pace, she began to feel a little more better than before, as if the walking and the smelling of the fresh, cool morning air had managed to toss away her fatigue.

 _Today is going to be a good day, hopefully though. Still, a couple of Guild quests is just what the doctor ordered, so I'm going to take it at my own pace._ IF thought as she neared the Guild of Planeptune; the giant structure stuck out like a sore thumb due to it's architecture as well as its size.

The Guild Hall of Planeptune, most commonly referred to as the Planeptunian Guild at times, was a sight to see, other than the Basilicom where the CPUs would reside of course. The walls were high, the edges of the roof sloped over the walls while the rooftop was flat with a small area for people to walk and talk, the front entrance had two large doors that were taller than just about every tall person in all of Gamindustri. Then there was inside the Guild Hall itself. There were different sections of the Guild Hall, each having its own purpose and distinction.

First there was the hall itself, where members of the Guild, aspiring adventurers and even the goddesses would converge together for quest taking; the walls were high as were the thick columns, all were coloured in a creamy colour, a dark grey and a lilac colour as well. Many billboards and touch screen computers were littered all over the place, on walls and on desks. Secondly there was the mess hall, a place for people in the Guild and even special guests that would turn up without notice, such as the CPUs, would gather and practically party for a huge length of time; the walls were coloured the same way as the main hall, including the columns and the kitchen. However, the mess hall was under maintenance due to some old parts of the walls starting to cave in and collapse. Thirdly there were the offices where high ranking members of the Guild staff would sign away forms, documents, orders and any other paperwork; there was even a large conference room where members of the Guild Council would partake in meetings – IF had been offered a seat in the Council but chose to refuse it, why no one knew. Lastly there was the vaults, these sealed away rooms were in the lower levels, though there were a few smaller vaults near the reception area of the main hall for weapon and credit uses; the lower level vaults were filled with goddess knows what, not even IF herself had much of a clue, except possibly some forbidden weapons or even some extra credits.

The green eyed brunette approached one of the reception desks and leaned up against one of the pillars and yawned involuntarily, catching the receptionist's attention. "Crap. Sorry about that, just a little bit tired it all," IF quickly apologised.

The receptionist waved her hand and smiled. "It's alright, IF, everyone around here is a bit tired as of late. Anyway, was there a quest you wanted to do? You wouldn't be here for any other reason."

The Guild Agent nodded. "Yeah, that's right. Got anything good? I need to stretch my muscles out and get something done."

"Hmm, there might just be something that you could take a look at, let me take a look first," the receptionist said in response as she sat down and began to search through the quest catalogues on her computer, typing away furiously to gain access to the quest list, afterwards she gently scrolled down the pages to find something that the Wind Walker would find interesting. "So, did you hear about that adventurer who was sot in the back with arrows?"

IF nodded grimly. "Yeah, my friend was in the hospital when that unlucky woman was taken in for surgery, apparently she won't ever walk again due to where the second arrow pierced her. Why do you ask? Got some sort of quest related to that or something?"

The receptionist shook her head, her long violet hair shaking around as well. "No, not yet, but I think you should know some of the circumstances surrounding the whole thing. You see, the adventurer's name is Sayo and she's practically a newbie to the Guild, only came in for a monster hunter profession a few days ago, said she really needed the money. Sayo was out in the southern woods of Virtua Forest where she was attacked and shot in the back twice, she was found soon afterwards by some passing hunters who happened to be hunting some creatures, they took her to the hospital and that's that."

"So was there anything strange about the whole things, aside from the attacker using archaic weaponry?" IF asked as she stretched out her back and neck, silently sighing in relief as she felt her muscles and bones start to get over the early morning fatigue.

"Well, there was one other thing that strikes me as odd. The southern portion of Virtua Forest is usually filled with monsters who prey on people who pass through them, so any monster hunter from the Guild would go there for a quest to clear out the fiends. Only Sayo wasn't registered in the mission logs, meaning that she wasn't out on a mission when she was attacked. When questioned in the hospital after the operation, Sayo didn't say why she was out there in the first place, nor did she even describe her attacker. It's suspicious, but she did seem to be a little too tired for extensive questioning." Soon afterwards the violet haired receptionist returned to her computer, where she soon discovered a quest that seemed suitable for her talents. "Hmm, here's something for you. It's a request from the owners of some farms down in the south, they want a pack of Fernirs who have been ravaging their livestock to be wiped out, the reward is around one thousand credits. Wow, looks like these farmers really want the Fernirs to be terminated."

The Wind Walker raised an eyebrow, seemingly curious in the prospect of hunting Fernirs. "Sounds interesting. Where're these Fernirs held up?"

"The southern woods of Virtua Forest, apparently they've made some sort of home there." The receptionist then gave IF a printout of the details. "Here's everything you need that details about the mission, good luck. Also, if you do find the Fernirs down there can you also have a look around for any signs of Sayo's attacker? I'll mark the location on this map for you. If you do find anything do report it, though I doubt the higher ups want to fill out more incident forms."

IF nodded as she took the piece of paper. "Alright then, guess I better be off. I'll be back later once I've completed the quest." The brown haired Guild Agent then departed the Guild, ready to take on the first quest for the day, despite still feeling more than a little bit tired.

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It took a while for IF to reach her destination, but the long walk was worth it; she had a motorbike, but it was in repairs due to a few loose gadgets. Along the way she had met with the farmers who had filed the request to the Guild and extracted some further information from them regarding the attacks made by the Fernirs, it seemed that the wolf-like monsters had made their lair in some old ruins deep within the southern woods, the farmers said that they would have dealt with it themselves if it had not been for the large number of Fernirs that occupied the ruins. With little need o ormore encouragement, the Guild Agent walked down the dirt path from the farmstead and entered the southern woods of Virtua Forest; it was the largest patch of trees that stretched for miles upon miles, making it the largest forest in all of Gamindustri, even larger than the Colovian Forest of the western landscape of Lowee.

It was rather peaceful in Virtua Forest, which was something that IF was glad about; most people in Planeptune come to Virtua Forest not only to hunt monsters when sighted, but to merely have a nice holiday. Obviously things had turned downhill as of late, especially with all of the recent monster sightings, and they were only increasing as time wore on. After adventuring through the southern woods for what seemed like several hours, although it only had been at least half an hour, IF stumbled upon the spot where Sayo the Guild adventurer was attacked, and from what the Wind Walker could see there was little to make out. "How the hell am I supposed to find clues to the attack if there's nothing here? Jeez, people just have too much expectations," IF grumbled as she searched through the small glade in the attempt to find any clues.

Soon enough, however, the Guild Agent stumbled upon the discarded shaft of an arrow; it was lying amongst the densely covered shrubbery. IF bent down on one knee and picked it up, yet there was little to make of it. Further away was a small pile of blood, it was dry and happened to be spilt all over the place. "Looks like she was hit here, yet there's nothing else I can do right now," IF mumbled to herself as she stood back up. "Oh well, no use in worrying about it, if there's nothing to find then there's nothing to find. Might as well get that quest done though, would be interesting to see those ancient ruins."

IF always felt a tickle of excitement whenever she stumbled upon ancient ruins, it only made her thirst for adventure increase. She had been across just about all of Gamindustri, and there had always been some sort of ancient ruins hidden within the wilderness. It was even said that Planeptune City was founded on what was left of an ancient city centuries ago, that was where the Guild hall was apparently from. It always puzzled and annoyed IF about the lack of knowledge regarding their ancestors, this was most evident during her school days whenever she was in a history lesson and the teachers would fail to even mention much about the ancients of Gamindustri. The only things that everyone knew about them was the odd architecture of their ruins, and that they might have worshipped a long forgotten goddess, but that was it. Not even Histoire seemed to know much due to a loss of knowledge, to which she was not sure how it happened in the first place.

As IF walked through the southern woodlands of Virtua Forest, a light breeze blowing through the trees and bushes, the Guild Agent reached into the belt that was strapped around her blue coat and pulled out her pink cellphone, she flipped it open and checked the screen for any new messages as well as the time. There were no new messages and the time read 9:29 am; still a little too early for most Planeptunians. It was not long for IF to reach the ruins where the Fernirs had set up their lair, it was just up ahead along the heavily ruined stone road. Many of the trees parted away to reveal ruined stone walls covered in vines, several columns were sprawled over the ground in separate pieces, loose pieces of stone from the old walls were all over the place. Inside what looked like a ruined house was the Fernir lair itself, the different wolf-like monsters were all over the place with sharp fangs that dripped with saliva and piercing eyes that glared at everything around them, their fur was mangled.

The Wind Walker grinned as she hid behind a small ruined wall, her gaze peeking over the wall. She materialised her Qatars – two short blade that were attached to her wrists – and leapt over the ruined wall. The Guild Agent slashed a blade upwards through the closest monster, slicing its head off. As the Fernir turned into pixels the rest of the pack noticed what was going on and jumped to attention, their snarling barks echoing through the morning sky. IF did not wait on the defence, instead she struck forth and stabbed a Qatar through a Fernir's head before launching a roundhouse kick against the beast, sending it crashing into a few more of its brethren while turning into pixels. One of the monsters leapt up at the young man, but her speed was enough to counter it with a swift blow across the Fernir's throat while fending off another monster's attack.

"Jeez, you guys sure are trying harder than the last time I fought your species," IF grumbled as she slew several more Fernirs with swift strikes, almost a blur if some people were around to see the fight. After slaying another of the wolf-like monsters the brunette jumped back several paces and stood in a defensive position while the rest of the Fernir pack gathered around her, the largest of the group were huddled together in front of her, making it an easy target for the young woman. "Heh, but you're not good enough for me! **Daemon Flame!** "

Fire burst forth from IF's right hand, a bright red rune appeared underneath the group of large Fernirs, then came the explosion of flames that erupted from under the wolf-like monsters. They howled and screamed from the pain that they suffered, some died from the fiery attack, those that did survive did not last for long. IF struck forward and, with an almighty cry, sliced apart the remaining survivors. The rest of the Fernirs were cut down easily, although one did manage to pounce up on the Guild Agent from behind and slash a tear into the right sleeve of her coat. With a savage glare IF stabbed both of her Qatars into the last monster and threw it into the nearest ruined stone wall, slaying it instantly. "This is favourite coat dammit!" IF shouted furiously at the dissipating pixels.

The Fernirs were now all dead, and that was all that mattered. IF sighed with relief, yet she knew that it would cost her a bit of money to have the coat stitched up, unless Compa knew how to do it. The Wind Walker chuckled to herself as she received her loot, a few healing grass and some pelts, and began to make her way back to the farmstead to tell them the good news, and to claim her reward. _Hmm, speaking of Compa, I should visit her in the hospital after a few more quests, maybe even get something for dinner as well. Ah, a day in the life of a Guild Agent. It isn't too exciting though, used to be a few years ago when I joined up, but now it's getting… dull._ _Maybe I should go on another adventure around Gamindustri, just like I used to. Yeah, that's a good idea._ IF thought to herself as she walked through Virtua Forest, her destination aimed towards the farmstead, then Planeptune City.

* * *

The morning had turned into afternoon, which was replaced by evening. The sun began to settle over the western horizon as the capital city of Purple Progress continued to be lively as ever, the citizens of the laid-back city would usually stay up late and play games just for the hell of it, sometimes it got a little too annoying for visitors and tourists that Planeptune weekend nights became infamous throughout Gamindustri, just as or even more infamous than Leanbox weekend nights. As people roamed down the streets, minding their own business from time to time, two women were strolling down the street from the hospital, a thin box that smelt rather excellent was held in one of their hand. IT was IF and Compa, and the two of them were returning home after a long day at their separate professions.

Compa sniffed the air, smiling hungrily at the thin cardboard in IF's hands. "I didn't know you liked pizza, Iffy, if I had known that you did I would have made some during our time living together over the last few years."

The green eyed woman chuckled with amusement. "Well, I haven't had pizza for a long time, not since I was still a kid who lived with her parents. Heh, those were good times… sort of."

The nurse-in-training quickly realised her friend was starting to get down-in-the-dumps once she began to think about her parents again. Compa shook her right shoulder and smiled brightly at her, the smile was enough to brighten up her evening. "Hey, it'll be fine, Iffy. All of that's in the past, it's time to live in the present, with pizza."

IF stopped walking and stared at Compa with wide eyes for a short moment before chuckling. "Yeah, maybe you're right. I've gotta stick to the present. Hopefully these bad dreams and the lack of good quests at the Guild won't effect it. Maybe I actually should go on an adventure around Gamindustri again, that would be a good change, some excitement would be pretty nice."

"Be careful for what you wish for, you might regret it eventually."

IF gave the nurse-in-training a surprised look as they began to walk down the street again. "What do you mean by that? Why would it be a bad thing to get what I wish for?"

"Sometimes it isn't the best to get what you wish for, especially if you wish for some excitement with adventure. You may get adventure, but not in the way you think it should go. At least that's what my parents told me when I was a kid," Compa replied in a serious tone.

IF chuckled and shook her head; the Guild Agent did not believe that bad luck could strike her down, and adventure is an adventure no matter how bad it could get. Before the brunette could give her thoughts about the small piece of wisdom that Compa spoke of, she noticed a person walk past her, and he or she looked rather odd. The person in question was wearing a tattered, dark green cloak and hood with several stitches, an almost black coloured leather-like vest with thick string tied around several places in the centre and the shoulders, a black shirt underneath it, dark brown or possibly even black coloured pants, black leather boots, a black belt and leather braces. What was most interesting about the figure was the two shortswords strapped to either side of the waist, the leather-bound quiver filled with arrows, the longbow strapped onto their back, the dark blue eyes, the silver bangs over the forehead and the silver necklace with the blue stone that hung down from the person's neck; the blue stone shone brightly for a few seconds before growing dim, there was some sort of symbol inside it yet it was hard to make out what it was.

Compa stared at her friend, oblivious to what she was looking at. "Is something wrong, Iffy?"

IF glanced back at Compa for a moment before looking back to where the strangely clad person was, but he or she had mysteriously disappeared, as if they had vanished into thin air. The Guild Agent swiftly gazed around for the mysterious person, but soon gave up and turned her attention back to Compa. "No, it's fine, Compa. Just thought I saw someone, or something, walk past me and disappear into nothing; could be my eyes playing games on my mind. Anyway, let's get back and eat this pizza before it gets cold."

As they continued to walk own the street towards their house the two women failed to see the hooded figure gazing at them from a corner down in an alleyway. After IF and Compa disappeared the hooded person continued on their stroll, yet where they were heading not even he or she knew. However, they got the feeling that it would not be the last time that they would see the green eyed Guild Agent, there was just something off about her that made him or her feel uncomfortable. _I'll keep an eye out for her, something is off about her, I can feel it. Now then, which part of the city am I in? Been too long since I was here and now I'm lost. Damn._ The strange, hooded figure thought as they walked down the alleyway, secluding themselves in the darkness.


	2. A Time of Uncertainty

**Chapter 2: A Time of Uncertainty**

"Hyah! IF yelled as she swiped a Qatar through a Tetrises' body, slicing the monster in two and effectively killing it instantly as it disappeared into a mist of pixels. The brunette Guild Agent quickly swung around and sliced apart the other Tetrises that had gathered around her, ready to leap forward and strike. IF swerved to the right and dodged an incoming attack while simultaneously kicking another monster across its face, sending it flying across the grassy field that they were battling on. "Heh. Is that all you got? I was expecting something a little more challenging than this when that hunting quest came in."

The multicoloured, block-like monsters that remained looked at each other, their goofy expressions never faltering, then they leapt forward at once. IF grinned, as if she had expected them to do such a thing. The blue coat-wearing woman leapt backwards and kicked the largest of the Tetrises into the air, as she somersaulted backwards and landed on the ground the brunette pulled out a desert eagle from her belt and fired several rounds into the creature's face, slaying it instantly as it fell to the ground in a mist of pixels. The Tetrises that had pounced in IF's direction and crashed into each other, resulting in the whole group to become entangled together on the ground in one, massive heap. With a slight chuckle, IF quickly holstered her pistol, brandished her Qatars, and rushed forward towards the mob – she was more of an up close and personal fighter anyway, she always had been.

" **Soul Combination!** " the Guild Agent shouted as she jumped onto the air and fell upon the group of Tetrises, slicing them apart with precise precision. Her movements were almost a blur, her strikes were savage, burst of energy came forth and smashed into the creatures; it was total carnage. It did not take long for the Guild Agent to annihilate the rest of the monsters, for they numbered merely a few. Afterwards IF looked back behind her to see the last pieces of pixels dissipate into the air, no sign of the fight could be seen. With a flick of her long, brown hair and a prideful huff, IF began to make her way down the small hill and back onto the dirt track that led to the rest of the park, which led to the town that had sent in the request to get rid off the monsters that had migrated into their land.

"That was too easy," IF lamented as she entered the main centre of the park, gazing at the security officers who were tasked with keeping the peaceful, outdoor establishment closed until further notice.. "But still, if the locals can't handle a simple problem such as this, then I might as well do it for them. It gets me out of the house at least, and far away from Neptune's antics."

The town that IF had just helped belonged in Planeptune, geographically they were situated near the border between Planeptune and Lastation, thus making the town a strategic commercial point for traders from across both nations. Also, it was not IF's first time in the town, in fact she had visited the place several times over the last couple of years for multiple reasons – mainly holidays, adventuring and Guild quests. IF did like the town, despite all of the busy commerce that occurred just about everyday in the market district it was rather peaceful, especially in the parks that surrounded the trading town, hence the high need for tranquillity at all cost. Just as the Guild Agent entered the town centre, where people were waving 'hello' to the brunette as they passed her, IF's favourite pink phone started to vibrate and a cheery tone resonated from it. The Guild Agent pulled the phone out of its place, flipped it open and pressed the 'answer' button after seeing who it was.

"Hey there, Compa, you need something?" IF asked as she politely bowed her head as a few people passed by her.

"Oh nothing much, just wanted to see how you were getting on with the mission is all," Compa replied in a cheery tone. "So, how did you go? Are you hurt, or maybe have a loose bit of clothing that I need to stitch up again?"

IF sighed. "No, Compa, nothing of the sort. I'm fine, and the mission is over and done with, just gotta get back to Planeptune City, head for the Guild and turn it in. Anyway, how are you going? Anything new going on in the hospital as of late?"

"No, nothing too major, just a few people who are a little bit sick – easily taken care of. Then there was an operation or two on, and of course a final spine operation on that poor Guild member who had been hit by two arrows," the nurse-in-training replied, her cheery tone never failing to go away despite how morbid it got.

"You know, that sounds kinda morbid and unsettling, in a way," IF said with a heavy sigh as she made her way down to the car park, where her motorbike was located. "So, need me to pick something up on my way to the Guild? I've got the money to get a couple of things if you want any."

"No, I'm fine for now, Iffy. Although, are you sure you're completely fine? It sounds like there's more going on than you let me on about," Compa asked, her curiosity piqued. She knew IF better than anyone, so if the brunette was hiding something then she was most likely right.

As it turned out, the chirpy nurse-in-training was right. The Guild Agent sighed and relented. "Well, there is something that's out of place, but I don't think it's too much of a real problem at the moment. Well, there were a lot less quests than there usually were, I mean a _lot_ less than usual. Usually there are around a couple of dozen quests, maybe even more than that, but this time there were hardly any; it's been like this for the last several weeks. Someone, something, or a group of people who are not aligned to the Guild, are getting to the quests before any member of the Guild can even get to the assigned location. It's getting to the point where the Guild Council is going to launch an investigation."

"It is really that serious?" Compa asked, unconvinced if it was a serious problem, to her it only meant less danger to the people of the world.

"Yes, it is serious as a matter of fact, Compa," IF replied in a stern tone as she reached her dark purple coloured motorbike. "If there aren't any quests to do then there wouldn't be any use for the Guild, would there? People would become unemployed, the Guild hall would become unused and collapse, the Goddesses wouldn't be able to gain any Shares, at least in Neptune's case anyway. Whoever, or whatever, is clearing out the requests without Guild permission must be brought down before we all lose our jobs!"

"No need to make this problem so serious and personal, Iffy. Whoever they are I'm sure they have the best intentions in mind," Compa said in her usual, upbeat tone, which was soon followed by a giggle when IF scoffed at the mere thought that someone, something, or a group of unaligned people, where not deliberately going against the Guild.

"You just don't understand it, Compa. Sure, it may not seem like much of a bad thing, and I can see the benefits, but most people in the Guild barely get enough money as it is, it's practically a matter of life and death for them," IF sighed, shaking her head. The Guild Agent began to turn her motorbike on, silently glad to hear the sound of the engine being on. As the brunette sat on the motorbike she returned her attention back to the mobile conversation. "Look, Compa, I gotta hang up; don't want to get into trouble with the local police just because I'm riding my motorbike while talking down a phone. I'll call you when I get back to the Guild, or maybe after, depends on what's going on. Talk to you later."

After placing her favourite pink phone away, IF began to drive her motorbike out of the car park, down the road and out of town. She enjoyed feeling the wind blow across her face as she drove on the highway that led back to Planeptune City, despite it being mid spring the weather was rather cool, yet it would get even cooler when she was driving down the highway with the wind blowing across her face, sending her long, brown hair flying behind her. There were not many other motorbikes, cars or trucks along the main road, which was not too surprising, considering that most of the Planeptunian citizens were much like their patron CPU in more than one aspect. With the lack of vigilance on the main road, IF felt a little more risky and decided to drive a little over the speed limit; it was not as if there was anyone to watch over the road all the time, so the Guild Agent went ahead with the little mischievous deed without fear.

Once IF had finally returned to the capital of Purple Progress, and decreased her speed considerably, the emerald eyed brunette drove towards the Guild and parked out the front, her sudden arrival caught the attention of everyone who was nearby. The blue coated Guild Agent gave them all a small smile and a polite nod as she passed them, walking into the Guild alongside a few other members with a prideful stride. Upon entering the Guild Hall the brunette made her way towards the reception area where members of the Guild would inform members of the Guild staff whether they were going on a quest so they could be filled out in the Mission Logs or if they were returning from one. IF passed several Guild members, all of whom had served diligently for many years and were agents such as herself. While there were no official rankings in the Guild, or any of the other Guilds in Gamindustri, there did seem to be some unofficial ranks that were distributed from the higher ups; these were Council Member, Agent and Member. Council Members belonged to the Guild Council, the governing body of the Guild; Agents were often tasked with clearing out the most troublesome of dungeons, were also usually associated with adventuring across Gamindustri and helping out the other Guilds; Members were mostly ordinary people who had just signed up, were mildly experienced or were not particularly powerful.

Once IF reached one of the reception desks she leaned up against a pillar and gave the purple haired woman sitting by the desk a small smile. "Hey there, I'm here to turn in that quest I went out to do," the Guild Agent said.

"Glad you made it back in one piece, and without a single scratch on you," the dark red haired haired haired receptionist responded, chuckling as she remembered what happened one time when IF came back with more than a few scratches and tears. "I remember the last time you came back all scratched up and all slimy from that Dogoo fight-"

" _Never. Mention. That. Again._ _Cheli,_ " IF snarled viciously at the receptionist, her eyes full of anger. It was something that she did not want to relive in her thoughts.

Before the receptionist, by the name of Cheli, could apologise to IF the phone next to her began to ring a cheery tone. The receptionist swiftly picked it up and began to respond to whoever was on the other end. "Hello, this is Cheli, staff member of the Planeptune Guild, can I help you? Uh huh… Okay then… Right… I'm sorry to hear that… Yes, yes I'll let the higher ups know about it… Have a good day."

"What was all that about?" IF asked as Cheli hang up the phone.

"Just a few Guild Members who were unable to finish their quest. Well, it's more accurate to say that they weren't able to even properly start it. Someone had already gotten to the specific location before they could," Cheli replied before sighing and shaking her head. "It's been happening all week so far, and I have to listen to all these people complaining about how there aren't as many quests as before. It's becoming a burden on my shoulders, so much so that I've had to write a whole report on it, yet I still have to deliver the damn thing to Julia Droyar. Hey, do you mind giving it to her? She wants to speak to you anyway."

IF nodded as she took a small file filled with numerous reports in it. "I can do that for you, but what does Julia want with me?"

"I don't know, all I was told was to keep an eye out for you and tell you to go see her," Cheli replied with a shrug of the shoulders. "Anyway, you better get to her, or else she'll just find you. Oh, by the way, are you coming to the Guild Anniversary Party tonight? Since the mess hall is still being repaired we're holding the party in one of the pubs."

IF chuckled as she was prepared to head off. "I suppose I can, I think Compa might want to come along as well."

"You can count me in, too," a third voice butted in after IF was done talking.

The Guild Agent and the receptionist looked over towards the source of the voice to see who it was, and both were surprised to see who it was. The woman who addressed them was a fair skinned woman with orange eyes and short boyish cut, rusty brown red hair that was worn with a grey headband, her expression was perky. She was wearing a white tank top with a brown belt-like segment on the top and bottom, underneath a blue and white jacket with gold accents, her skirt was white with thick strips of blue in the centre and worn with a brown belt with gold details, a small orange and black pouch attached to the back. Black fingerless gloves adorned her hands, black stockings that reach up to her knees were also worn along with blue boots with white, black, and gold accents. Her outfit gave people a good view of her stomach and lower back, giving people a good idea of what her curves were like, not to mention that her skirt was somewhat short. In her left hand was a rather large violin case, the case was covered in various stickers and small pictures that were pasted on the black case, inside the violin case was her weapon of choice: a sword.

The redhead woman walked over to IF and gave her a bright grin, along with a thumbs up from her right hand. "Heh, been a while hasn't it, IF?"

"Falcom?" the brunette Guild Agent asked. When the redhead nodded vigorously, IF could not help but smile at the woman before her. "It is you. Heh, how've you been, Falcom? Been a year or two since we last met like this."

"Sure has been a wild two years since we last met, thought it's been a good two years mind you," Falcom replied cheerfully. "As for what I've been doing for the last two years, well, I've been adventuring all across Gamindustri of course. I've been all over the place, seen many interesting ruins, delved into undiscovered and forgotten dungeons, and a couple of weeks ago I travelled with an interesting group of people."

"Well I'm sure you'll have all the time in the world to tell me about your latest adventures during the anniversary party tonight; look forward to seeing you there. Anyway, I gotta go and hand this report over to Julia Droyar, see you later" IF said as she began to walk away, waving a 'goodbye' to Cheli and Falcom.

The Guild Agent of Planeptune turned down a few corners until she had entered a hallway that led to several empty and mildly empty rooms, at the end of the hallway was a set of stairs that led upwards to the second level of the Guild – that was where the Guild Council resided in their separate offices and conducted all the paperwork as well as the main source of work correspondence between the Guild and the Basilicom. IF peered into one of the empty rooms and saw only stacks of paper, old outdated files, tables, chairs, cupboards and cardboard boxes, most of which were empty. _What a mess. I think this used to be an actual storage place before the Guild was hit with a bombardment of quests, I think that was when the CPUs were in major trouble, too._ IF thought as she continued to look around for around a minutes, finding nothing of interest, which resulted in her leaving the room and closing the door behind her.

Once IF walked up the flight of stairs and reached the second level of the Guild the brunette quickly realised how clean, orderly and, in a way, uptight the whole hallway appeared to be. The walls were bright, small table stands with flowers, broken weaponry from a bygone era and other ancient belongings as well were littered all over the place, there were even paintings of deceased members of the Guild who had made a lasting impact _Looks like the Council Members are starting to become_ _a little egotistic, at least some of them. Some of these portraits have surnames that I recognise, and of course all the people in the Guild that I know that have these surnames are either part of the Guild Council or are uptight Agents._ IF thought with a little disdain as she walked down the slightly posh hallway.

As IF turned down a corner and continued onwards she saw a person walking in the opposite direction, slowly approaching her. The Guild Agent stopped walking and stared at the person who was slowly walking towards her, trying to figure out where she had seen them before. The person in question had scruffy black hair with spiked bangs covering pieces of his forehead, cold purple eyes, a small scar on the right cheek with stitches and a stoic expression that hid all sorts of emotions. The person was a man, a young-looking one at that, he was most likely in his early twenties or either nineteen and twenty, just like IF. He was wearing a long white coat with black lining and gold accents,, a black collared shirt, black pants, grey fingerless gloves with steel knuckles, a white leather belts with a gold metal piece, black boots, and a gold ring with a strange marking on it. Despite how he appeared to be, IF knew him. Her expression was filled with shock, and no less with a little bit of fear as well.

The black haired man stopped walking and gazed at IF, his stoic expression disappeared only to be replaced with one filled with amusement. "Well isn't this a surprise. What brings you all the way up onto the second floor, IF?" the strange man asked with a wide grin. "It has been a long, long time since we last met, although I am surprised to see you up here."

"O-Oh… um… h-hello there, Fernandez, this is… unexpected. I was definitely not expecting to see you here of all places," IF stammered uncontrollably, much to her own embarrassment, although it did not take her long to regain her composure and remain guarded.

Fernandez chuckled and shook his head, the grin never going away as he approached the fabled Guild Agent. "Must you keep getting afraid every time you see me, IF? What happened between us was a long time ago, I did say I was sorry. Twice."

"You bashed the hell out of me during that sparring competition during our last year of middle school; you went out of control and almost beat me to death. How the hell am I supposed to forgive you after what you did to me back then?"

"Accidents happen, and it just so happened that I was having an extremely bad day at that moment," the black haired man replied with a shrug of the shoulders. "How was I supposed to know that I would essentially give you PTSD from an official middle school sparring match?"

IF glared at Fernandez, her grip in the files in her left hand became tighter as anger poured into her expression and emotions. "I do _not_ suffer from PTSD! I just… h-happen to be a little different is all," IF growled as she glanced away from the purple eyed man, who merely stared at her without blinking, yet no sign of any emotion was in his eyes. "Anyway, why are you here in the Planeptune Guild of all places? I thought your estranged father took you along with him so he could keep an eye on you while going about with his business making dream, or something like that. Why are you here? On some sort of errand for the Lastation Guild? I know for a fact that you work for them."

" _Did_ work for them. I got a transfer here not too long ago, just the other day in fact. Lastation may be home, but Planeptune is where I was born and partially raised, so I felt a little homesick and got the Lastation Guild to grant me a special transfer to this Guild, now I've become the tenth and final member of the Guild Council," Fernandez corrected the Guild Agent, much to her surprise. Upon seeing the confused look on her face, the black haired man raised an eyebrow with a surprised look on his own face. "You didn't know? Heh, looks like the higher ups don't want anything to do with you, especially since you turned down the offer to become a Council Member."

"The hell? How do you know about that?" IF asked, surprised that Fernandez knew quite a bit about what had been going on.

"I know of it because I was just offered the position you could have held by now; I just told you that a few seconds ago. I accepted it, by the way, if you already forgot," Fernandez replied with a smirk, his arms crossing over his chest. "You should have accepted it, you know. Being a Council Member has a lot of benefits, and I mean a _lot_!"

"I could never accept being a part of the Council, I prefer the call and freedom of adventuring with my friends. Though I'm sure that's hard for you to understand; you never had any friends," IF said, crossing her arms defiantly. The Guild Agent's distaste for Fernandez had only increased now that she met him again after many years of distance between them.

What surprised IF was that the black haired Council Member did not seem to be enraged in any sort of way, in fact he appeared rather calm, yet not too calm to warrant suspicion. His expression changed from a smirk to one filled with nostalgia, a face full of memory; it happened when IF said the word 'freedom'. Shortly afterwards, Fernandez merely shrugged his shoulder apathetically. "It matter not if I don't have friends, that merely means that I can get what I want done without any minor annoyances."

"That's pretty cold-hearted, isn't it?" IF asked.

Again, Fernandez shrugged. "I don't know, and frankly I don't care. Besides, friends will only hold you down, hold you back, and will remind you of the pain that you went through. Well, not you exactly, but for others that is the case." The purple eyed man then sighed. "Anyway, I have to be off now, have to get my house ready for the small party with the rest of the Guild Council to celebrate my inauguration as a Guild Council Member; I only recently arrived in Planeptune so I have to make things neat. If it ends quickly enough then I might turn for that anniversary party. Maybe. Oh, by the way, when did you join the Planeptune Guild? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

"Fifteen," IF replied. "I needed the money; never knew how truly great I was at this profession though. Although I officially joined and became a member when I was seventeen; quickly made it as an Agent afterwards."

"I thought so. By the way, before I leave I want to know something. What ever happened to that lame ass kid who would hang out with you from time to time?" the Council Member asked. "I heard he went missing or something of the like."

The emerald eyed woman shook her head. "I don't know, I haven't seen him for years. I have no idea what happened to him. He probably moved away or got lost, but there wasn't any missing child quests in the Guild that I heard of so I doubt he went missing."

The purple eyed man sighed, seemingly not appearing to care about the conversation any further. "Anyway, I have to be going now. Just so you are aware, I am your superior now, remember that before you do something stupid. Watch yourself. Trust no one," Fernandez informed the Guild Agent with a serious tone before he began to walk away.

IF took one last glance at the black haired man as he disappeared around the corner, leaving her by herself, yet before Fernandez walked away the Guild Agent saw the different emotions play out in his eyes. The brunette glared as Fernadez's shadow disappeared down the hallway before she continued on her way, her thoughts were now mixed between giving the report to Julia Droyar and what Fernandez was really up too. _He's evil, no doubt about it,_ _he always was_ _._ _Fernandez is up to something._ IF thought as she approached an office door with the name 'Julia Droyar' plastered on it. After knocking on the door gently three times the Guild Agent was met with a 'come in'.

"Excuse me, sorry for interrupting whatever you were doing, but I have some documents for you from Cheli," IF explained as she entered the office room, waving the file around to prove her words.

"Ah yes, I was expecting someone to deliver them right about now, glad to see you made it," Julia Droyar replied with a grin, pleased to see the blue coated Guild Agent.

Julia Droyar was a mildly young-looking woman with long, blonde hair that flowed down her back to the middle of her back and with several bangs covering her forehead, a black lightning tattoo was located on the left side of her face, her left eye was a ruby red while her right eye was a lifeless white, a scar ran down the right side of her face and over her right eye – the story that IF was told was that Julia lost her right eye and gained the scar when she fought an Ancient Dragon during her teenage years. She was wearing a red jacket that was unzipped at the front, a purple shirt with the Planeptune logo imprinted on the front, red pants and white shoes – she seemed to be a colourful person from what IF could see. Despite appearing so young Julia Droyar of Planeptune was actually around around in her mid thirties, she was also the second youngest member of the Guild Council; Fernandez was the youngest. Julia Droyar was unlike some of the others in the Planeptune Guild, especially in the Guild Council – out of everyone in the Guild Council it was Julia Droyar that IF respected the most, mostly because the blonde Council Member was an adventures person, although she was similar to Neptune's partying personality.

The office room was rather small compared to the other Council Member office rooms, although IF had only seen a few of them. The walls were, in an utterly different contrast to the rest of the Council Member rooms, coloured in red and brown, the desk was of a brown wood with four legs and several drawers, metal drawers were tucked away in the back corners of the office, a small plant in a red garden pot was on the desk alongside copious amount of paperwork and a computer that appeared to be broken – it was easy to tell that it was broken due to the small trail of smoke and the bits of lightning that sparked all over the place, no doubt the blonde Council Member had used her special lightning attacks against the computer in a fit of anger, probably because she was unable to work it properly. Julia took the file and began to look through it for a couple of seconds in mere silence, nodding her head as she took out several pieces of paper and looked at them.

"Mhmm, right… interesting… yeah… yeah that's definitely interesting," Julia muttered to herself as she looked at the different pieces of paper.

"Hmm? What's interesting?" IF asked, curious as to what the blonde Council Member was apparently so deeply interested in.

Then, much to the Guild Agent's surprise and shock, Julia threw the documents away behind her with a grin on her face. "Meh, it doesn't matter that much, I got the gist of it," Julia chuckled with a toothy grin. That was one aspect of Julia's personality that IF found annoying: the Council Member's carefree persona towards work – it was reminiscent of Neptune's persona, one that had affected most of Planeptune's citizen body.

"Julia Droyar, do you have to be so carefree all the time?" IF asked in a firm tone while she crossed her arms. "I understand that there has to be a little bit of cheeriness and all that in the Council, but do you need to have that persona during your actual work hours?"

The lightning specialist shrugged her shoulders in an uncaring way. "Meh, who cares? The whole Guild needs some lighting up if you ask me, especially with all these reports of people who are not affiliated with the Guild happening to take care of quests without our knowledge. Before you ask, yes, it's happening across all of Gamindustri. While I personally don't have a major problem with this development, I am slightly concerned about the rate these people appear to be active; I've heard that our latest member and Council Member, Fernandez, publicly voicing his opinion on the matter, saying that we should sanction search parties into the wilderness to find these groups of people and rout them out. A foolish idea, but I guess he can't be blamed, he is from Lastation after all, and that is the Lastation way of dealing with things."

"Speaking of the people who are going around taking care of these quests, who are they? Got an ideas?" IF asked, eager to know any sort of clue.

Julia Droyar shrugged, but soon answered with words. "Well, it could be any group of people. Wandering groups of mercenaries? Maybe some people from the Guild who happen to pass through the area? Maybe some vigilantes? They're all possible choices. Then again, there is another possibility: the Rangers."

"The Rangers?" IF asked.

Julia nodded. "Yeah, they're our best candidate for this decrease of quests. Their society is older than the four nations of Gamindustri, so the old records from the vaults say at least, and they have been known to clear out dungeons and keep the wilderness safe. They haven't been active for a couple of decades, maybe even longer than that, so the possibility of the Rangers starting to become more active now isn't out of the question. However, they're a bit too active, plus the Guild doesn't get along with them, never have."

"So what do we do? Want me to go out there and find one of these Rangers? They're hard to find, in fact I've never seen any Rangers during my adventures." It was true though, barely anyone had seen a Ranger before, in fact if asked what a Ranger looked like the usual answer would be an awkward stutter or a simple shrug of the shoulders. The only time Rangers were rarely spotted was when they were in a pub, there they would have a drink, smoke some sort of rare tobacco that no one knew where to find, and tell tales of the long forgotten past, then they would leave for a couple of months, maybe even years, before they returned.

"Well, I dunno, but we'll leave that matter for another time. There isn't a full inquiry at the moment, but I'm sure that's gonna change now that Fernandez is a part of the Guild Council," Julia Droyar replied. She sighed and shook her head, then the woman's face lit up with a bright grin. "Anyway, I take it you're gonna be at the anniversary party at the Purple Progress Pub tonight, I'll catch up with you there."

The Guild Agent nodded firmly. "All right then, I'll see you there tonight." The brunette then walked out of the bright office and closed the door behind her, her destination was towards the flight of stairs that led back down to the main level.

IF decided that she was going to go on a few more quests before she called it a day, then there would be the anniversary party that was going to be held later that night that she was going to attend, preferably with Falcom and hopefully Compa, if the Guild Agent managed to get her out of the hospital. The blue coated woman was secretly looking forward to the Guild Anniversary Party, although she was never going to admit it, she did always enjoy seeing Julia Droyar get super drunk and then try to molest the large breasts of any woman who was nearby; whether Julia was a lesbian, straight or bisexual was unknown, though nobody really cared, she was simply Julia Droyar – IF was simply glad that the blonde Council Member never molested small breasts, or else the Guild Agent would have beaten her up senseless.

As IF walked down the hallway she was about to pass by a slightly open door she heard someone talking from within, the Guild Agent crept over towards the door and peeked through to see who was in there. The brunette saw none other than Fernandez sitting in a large, comfy, black office chair with a large desk in front of him, the purple eyed man appeared to be walking down the phone to someone. "Yes… Yes that is correct, I want you to start searching the area thoroughly, leave no stone unturned… What do you mean 'not enough manpower'? Just get on with the job already… Yes I will pay you, so long as you find something of interest… Look, if you can gain entry to them then good for you, but if you can't then I'll have to deal with it myself in due course…"

IF was not completely sure as to what Fernandez was talking about, but it sounded like something she was not meant to hear, so the Guild Agent quickly, and as quietly as she could, walked away. However, unfortunately for IF she was not as subtle as she wished, for the black haired man had seen her. As soon as Fernandez finished with his phone call he slummed back into his office chair with a satisfied sigh before a grin crept over his face. "Well then, things are starting to get interesting," Fernandez muttered to himself with a smirk. "IF, the Wind Walker of Gamindustri – heh, what a pathetic name for a pathetic little worm. She better not get in my way, or else the freedom that she believes we all have will be stripped from her. However, without her this world would much more boring."

The black haired man reached into a drawer and pulled out a file titled 'IF', he opened it and pulled out several pieces of paper that detailed all of IF's known history, her profile, the missions she had been on, her friendship with the CPUs of Gamindustri as well as her friendship with Compa, who was also technically a member of the Guild. After smirking at the documents for a short moment Fernandez looked over at another slip of paper that was lying on his brand new desk, on it was a barely detailed document with a small photo of a figure in a tattered, dark green cloak and hood with several stitches, an almost black coloured leather-like vest with thick string tied around several places in the centre and the shoulders, a black shirt underneath it, dark brown or possibly even black coloured pants, black leather boots and a black belt. A quiver with arrows and a longbow were strapped to his back, two shortswords were strapped to either side of his waist, and a necklace with a bright blue gem with a strange symbol in the centre was around his neck. The picture was rather blurry and out of focus, yet it was the only picture of the mysterious person that Fernandez had.

The purple eyed Council Member picked it up and stared sternly at the picture, slightly noticing the silver hair and dark blue eyes; the figure seemed grim and dour. Fernandez hummed thoughtfully to himself for a moment, undecided as to what policy he should take. "Hmm, just who are you, and what future do you bring with you?" Fernandez wondered aloud as he continued to stare firmly at the picture, wondering whether the mysterious person brought good tidings or not.

* * *

 **A/N: Got this done earlier than I anticipated – all because of a lack of Wi-Fi connection, which is making it hard to deal with when I have assignments due over the course of the next two weeks; I'm not too fused about that though, so I can get it done as well as a chapter or two of my stories whenever I can, as long as I'm not distracted again. As I said in the last lot of author notes, the usual word count will be between three thousand to eight thousand, which is roughly around half a dozen pages on LibreOffice – yeah, I use LibreOffice for most of my fanfics; Google Docs is used for one of them. Anyway, things are gonna get interesting with the next chapter, especially with all the alcohol that is going to be consumed. If you have suggestions please do inform me, and as always have a good day if possible.**


	3. Anniversary Party

**Chapter 3: Anniversary Party**

The afternoon was starting to move on into the early stage of the evening as the sun began to shine a bright shade of yellow, coating the sky in the same colour as the clouds began to part away. People strolled from one place to another, continuing to go about their daily lives without a hitch, laughing, chatting, smiling and waving. They were all so happy, so carefree, so joyous and full of energy. All except one person who was walking all alone in the shadow of the buildings along the side of the road, staying away from everyone else who happened to be nearby. The people who walked by would always glance at the strange, hooded person with the bow and quiver full of arrows on their back with curious stares with many questions racing through their minds, but anyone who managed to pluck up the courage to talk to the strange person would always be met with a cold stare and a dismissive word or two; they did not look too bad, but the stranger was just too dismissive for their overall liking, not to mention that the aura surrounding him screamed 'outsider' – not that the people of Planeptune frowned upon outsiders, in fact the citizens of the Land of Purple Progress were so open to them that it was too concerning.

Nevertheless, the strange hooded person continued on their merry way, never stopping for anything as they walked ever onwards towards whatever destination they had chosen to go to. Unsurprisingly, the stranger made their way towards the Purple Progress Pub, one of the best hotspots for outsiders to visit whenever they needed a place to sleep. The Purple Progress Pub was famed throughout Planeptune City for having great rooms, warm beds, excellent ventilation, strong booze, hearty meals and a cheerful staff. It was immensely popular with members from the Guild, which increased the pub's standing across the city. However, the pub was devoid of life when the strange, hooded person walked past the hanging pub sign and walked through the door. The hooded person glanced around the large room filled with seats, tables, posters and bright walls, then their gaze fell upon the counter where people would order food, drink and request a room for the night, but there was no one there as well. With a grunt and a sigh, the hooded stranger walked up the counter and rang the bell.

"Helllllooooo? Is anyone home?" the stranger called out loudly for anyone to hear; from the sound of the person's voice it sounded as if they were a male, a young man at least.

Suddenly there came the crashing and clanking of metal against the tiled floor, the noise was loud and echoed throughout the large pub hall, resulting in the hooded person to cringe and hold their hands over their ears. Soon afterwards a woman came walking out of the doorway from the kitchen and, with an apologetic smile on her face, approached the counter. The woman was the owner of the Purple Progress Pub as well as the cook, master of the rooms and ran just about everything with only a very small staff at hand. She had black hair that was tied up into a ponytail at the back of her head, piercing sky blue eyes with a pair of glasses, a purple shirt with the Planeptune logo on it, an unzipped black jacket with a hood slung down the back, bright blue jeans and black boots. She did not look like someone who ran such a successful establishment, especially considering her young age, but she sure did it. Once the pub owner laid her eyes on the hooded person her eyes lit up with a hint of gladness and a small smile found its way into her expression.

"Well well well, look who we have here. I take it you've been busy all day?" the black haired woman asked as she leaned onto the counter, her hands resting underneath her chin.

"You could say that," the hooded stranger replied back. The mysterious person then reached into a small satchel that was tied onto their belt and pulled out an average purse of credits, which they then gave to the pub owner. "Here, this is for you."

"Awww, that's so sweet of you~" the woman said with in a cute tone as she took hold of the average sized leather purse of credits. After examining them for a brief moment, the pub owner emptied the contents into a nearby cash register before retuning her attention back towards the hooded figure. "So I take it that you took a long visit to some sort of ancient ruin and delved into the deepest parts of any dungeon that could be there. Am I right, Erynor?"

The young man, by the odd and highly unusual name of Erynor, nodded. "Yeah, sure did. Place was filled with haunted spirits and everything for miles and miles; that underground ancient ruins for you in a nutshell. Anyway, I managed to reach the end of dungeon treasure chest and found that purse of credits inside, along with some other old items that were really no use at all, so I sold them not long ago. Funny, despite everything that has happened over the last few thousand years and the only thing that doesn't change is the currency. Why is that by the way, Izumi?"

The pub owner, by the name Izumi Fukuyama, shrugged her shoulders in response before speaking. "Who can say? I don't know, and I doubt that the Oracle around here, Lady Histoire, would know – I think so anyway. Besides, does it even matter now? It's been thousands of years now, no one asks and no one cares."

"The Rangers would care," Erynor pouted as he crossed his arms over his chest, his gaze darting away from the woman on the other side of the wide, dark brown counter.

Izumi giggled audibly as she leaned over the counter, flipped off Erynor's hood and rubbed her hand through the young man's scruffy, silver coloured hair. She could not help but continue to giggle away like a maniac as she rubbed her hair through the young man's hair in a rough patting session, clearly enjoying it all; Erynor was not and pouted in a way that Izumi found adorable. "Must you do this?" the young man grumbled to the childish black haired pub owner, his nerves suddenly starting to shake ever so slightly.

"Of course I have to, you silly bean~" Izumi replied in a cheeky tone. "I love seeing you get all pouty whenever I show even a simple sign of affection, it's sooooo cute! But you like it when I keep doing this, don't you? I know you do~"

"Sh-Shut up, it isn't l-l-like that at all!" Erynor exclaimed in a flustered way, his cheeks blushing a shade of red as he stared with an angry look in his eyes at Izumi.

This only made the situation for Erynor worse. The pub owner pulled the unfortunate young man into a tight embrace and continued to rub a hand through his rough, silver hair. He continued to growl and pout at the black haired woman as his head was squished up against her moderate sized breasts. "Awwww, you're such a tsundere," Izumi chuckled with amusement. "You're so adorable!"

"S-Stop it! I command you to stop it! N-N-Noooooo!" Eventually, after a few extra minutes of head rubbing and forced hugging, the silver haired man managed to escape Izumi's tight grasp and back off several feet away, breathing in and out deeply his nerves shaking almost violently; he was undecided whether to be enraged with the pub owner, to punish her or to simply forgive and forget. After all, she was only playing around with him, at least that was what it looked like to him anyway. "You… why do you keep doing this to me? You know how much I hate it."

"I know that, but your reactions are just priceless," Izumi replied with a cheeky grin as she returned to her side of the counter. "Anyway, you going to be attending the Guild anniversary party tonight? There's going to be a lot o food and drink around, not to mention that there may be some pretty ladies strutting about that might take your fancy."

"What do you mean that there might be ladies that might take my fancy? I'm a lone wanderer, a lonely traveller, a singular figure, someone who doesn't need comradeship at all in any form," Erynor pridefully informed Izumi with a content look in his now upbeat expression, his nerves finally calming down. "So no, I have no intention of dropping into this anniversary party that the Planeptune Guild is holding here."

Izumi straightened her glasses and stared sternly at Erynor, the cheerfulness that was once in her expression was now gone, replaced by a firmness that the young man had not seen for a long time. "Erynor, do you remember what my mother said before she left me all those years ago so I could pursue my so-called 'foolish' dream to open a pub for everyone, no matter who they happened to be, to use?" When Erynor shrugged in response it made the young woman sigh in annoyance. "To refresh your forgetful mind, my mother told me to keep an eye on you to make sure that you live longer than your father did, and I am to keep that promise."

"But I travel across all of Gamindustri, I've been doing that ever since I was a young boy. How are you supposed to keep an eye on me when I'm off in the wilderness?" Erynor retorted back, crossing his arms in defiance.

"I understand, and that is a problem. However, the least I can do is look out for you when you actually do stop by every now and then," the black haired pub owner replied, sighing at the end. "You know, I'd like it if you showed up a lot more often, it gets lonely sometimes without someone I know from childhood."

"Deal with it. I'm an adventurer, it's practically my profession at this point," Erynor responded coldly, staring at Izumi with a stern gaze. However, he soon regretted speaking to her in such a way as the pub owner quickly began to pull an expression that just made the young man feel absolute guilt, it was made worse when she began to shed tears. "Ugh… look, I'm… I-I-I'm s-sorry for saying all that before, I was just a bit annoyed with all the head rubbing is all. S-Stop trying to make me feel guilty!"

Soon enough Izumi giggled as she wiped her face clean from the tears that she forced herself to shed, causing the young man to grumble in annoyance. "You were just faking all of that, weren't you?" When the sky blue eyed woman nodded cheerfully she continued to giggle as Erynor pouted once more. "Seriously, how long are you going to keep at it? You've been doing that to me for years now. Stop it."

"Hehehehe… sorry about that, but I can't help it, you get all too cute when you get all pouty and everything, it so adorable~" Izumi responded in an upbeat tone that was filled with absolute joy. "Anyway, you should totally attend the Guild anniversary party tonight, it'll be fun. I know you don't like it, or at least claim to not like it, but do this for me, please? I want you to make some friends, or at least an acquaintance or two before the night ends."

"Why do I even need to make friends anyway? I'm a loner by choice," Erynor asked, confused as to why Izumi was asking him to even make a friend in the first place.

"You just said it yourself: you're a loner. You need some sort of company. I hardly see you any more these days since you're out and about in the wilderness of Gamindustri, slaying monsters, delving into ancient ruins and clearing out long forgotten dungeons. Just please, do this for me, for old times sake," the black haired woman replied, the tone of her voice indicating that she was generally concerned for his well-being. However, she began to stare at the young man with puppy dog eyes, making the silver haired man feel a tinge in his heart as he looked at her. "Come on, just this once, Erynor. Just have a little bit fun for the night. Relax and enjoy the company of the Guild, or at least pretend that you do."

Finally, after much stuttering and grumbling, the dark blue eyed man sighed and gave in to the inevitable. "Tch. Fine then, I'll attend the Guild anniversary party, b-but only because you're practically begging me to come along and be a part of the party. Why you want me to even be a part of a social convention for the Planeptune Guild is beyond me, but I'll role with it for now."

"It'll be fine, trust me on this one, Erynor," Izumi informed the young man, smiling away as she did so. "Anyway, you best get going back to your room now, I've got a party to prepare for. See you tonight, if you keep your promise that is."

"Yeah yeah, whatever you say, Izumi. I'll keep my promise, don't worry about it. Not like I have a choice." Erynor then left Izumi by herself as he walked into the hallway that led to the guest rooms and strolled up the stairs towards the second level, where his room was located. The young man could feel Izumi's eyes stare into his back as he began to ascend up the stairs until the silver haired man was finally out of her eyesight. He knew that Izumi meant well, she always had been ever since they were kids, and he also knew that she truly did want to spend more time with him, but his duties to his own people prevented that from happening. At any rate, Erynor's mind was focused on what was going to happen during the Guild anniversary party. _Well, I guess it can't be all that bad if Izumi is going to be handling it._ _I suppose I might as well go along with her, for now_ _at least_ _._

As soon as Erynor was out of sight and far away from earshot, Izumi chuckled to herself and sighed with delight. "Ah, this is going to be great, I just know it," the pub owner muttered cheerfully to herself as she returned to the kitchen to resume her cleaning duties before anyone from the Guild turned up. "I wonder if that lonely tsun will ever make a friend? Guess all I can do is simply hope for the best."

* * *

The sun had almost set over the horizon when the first few Guild members arrived for celebrate the anniversary of the Guild, all were in a jubilant and cheerful mood. As soon as the stars began to shine in the darkening sky more and more people from the Planeptune Guild rocked up in the dozens, eager to start the night with an energetic party. By half past nine there were dozens upon dozens of people flocking about, drinking, feasting, gambling, talking, yelling, fighting, falling asleep and being groped by Julia in a drunken haze – Julia Droyar had been one of the first people to turn up and as a result was already drunk by the time the others arrived. Inside the Purple Progress Pub there were around half to nearly three quarters of the Planeptune Guild, all squished together in a drunken and blabbering frenzy; at least there was still some space to walk through. Many groups of people cobbled together for a drink as they told each other tales over what they had killed, what places they had discovered, what dungeons they had delved into and what the current state of things throughout Gamindustri was; all were normal conversations during such an event.

Such was the state of things when IF, Compa and Falcom entered the pub. The three of them were hit full blast by the upbeat roaring of challenges being thrown at one another, the belching of fellow Guild members and the laughter that echoed throughout the pub hall. However, IF merely shook her head and sighed, although it was more out of amusement rather than disappointment. "Well, it looks like we're kind of late, the party seems to be half over already," the brunette Guild Agent said as she, Compa and Falcom fully entered the pub and closed the door behind them.

"Hey, the party ain't over until there's only till there's only Cinzano Bianco left to drink," the redhead adventuress proudly claimed with a prideful smile and a thumbs up directed towards IF.

The blue coated young woman raised an eyebrow at her adventuring friend with a hint of confusion in her gaze. "Cinzano Bianco? Why are you drinking wine all of a sudden?" the Guild Agent asked, confused as to why Falcom was even toughing the stuff to begin with.

"Oh come on IF, we're adults, not kids with wild fantasies any more," the redhead adventuress replied cheerfully as she, IF and Compa began to walk towards the bar counter where several Guild members were drinking at while a black haired woman with sky blue eyes and glasses was serving them with plates of food. "Anyway, let's get something to eat, I'm starving. You two hungry?"

"I sure am," Compa replied with an enthusiastic nod, eager to sink her teeth into some freshly cooked food.

IF nodded, only with less enthusiasm. "All right then, I might as well. I'm not sure how long I'm going to be hanging out with everyone in this anniversary party, but I'm guessing it's going to be a few hours until I head home. Yeah, sure, let's get something to east and drink."

Falcom's expression lit up brightly as she beamed a bright smile at her two friends. "Alrighty then, let's get some tasty; I know for a fact that the Purple Progress Pub has great food and drink, so we're going to be all good tonight."

"Have you been here before, Falcom?" Compa asked as she, IF and the redhead adventuress walked up to the counter.

"Yep, sure have, although it's been a while, a year or two I think," Falcom responded as she leaned up on the dark brown counter, her gaze falling back towards the nurse-in-training as she gave her the usual upbeat smile that was found in her expression. The adventuress looked over at the black haired woman and called out to her with an enthusiastic wave. "Hey there! Been a while, Izumi."

The black haired pub owner turned away from the feasting Guild members and looked over at Falcom, then her expression lightened up considerably. "Falcom, it is you. Heh, it sure has been a while, you damn redhead adventuress," Izumi said with a grin. "So, you here for the Guild anniversary party then? You sure know when to return to civilisation at the right time. So, these two people here your friends?"

"Yeah, they sure are." The cheery redhead then pointed over towards her two comrades, telling Izumi who they were. "This is IF, the famous Guild Agent of Planeptune who is known as the Wind Walker of Gamindustri, and this here is Compa, a nurse-in-training at the local hospital. Both are close friends with the CPUs themselves. I'm sure you have heard of them before."

Izumi nodded and beamed a bright smile. "Mhmm, I sure have. Well, it's great to see you two in the flesh, been wondering if I would for a while now; I don't get out much you see, so I don't really get to talk to a lot of different people. So, how's the Guild anniversary party going for you three? Good I hope. I spent a lot of time today making this place tidy and spotless, although with how things are going right about now I doubt it's going to stay like that for much longer."

"We only just arrived a minute ago, so there isn't much to say," IF replied as she approached the counter and stood next to Falcom, her emerald green eyes staring straight at the young-looking woman who ran the entire establishment. It was then that the Wind Walker noticed the lack of staff members running around the pub hall and the kitchen, which confused her quite a bit. "Say, you haven't got a lot of people working for you, isn't that right? Also, do you own this place? If so then you are a lot younger than I thought you should be."

Izumi nodded proudly. "Just as I thought, you've got keen eyes in that head of yours, IF. Yes, the staff is a little small for a pub, but we manage just fine with a small group and not a large one, it makes us more hard-working than most other businesses around here. Also you are correct, I am rather young for someone who is running a very successful pub in this city, but I just happen to have the ambition, the tenacity and the drive to make it happen. So, what do you want to order? Take your time, I've got all night. Literally."

IF, Compa and Falcom stared at the menu that the pub owner had given them, eyeing the various cuisines that they could order. But their thoughts were always interrupted whenever some fellow Guild members would raise their voice in a booming roar as they faced off with other members, making it hard to think over what they would like to eat and drink. It was annoying at the worst of times, but it was just how the low and middle ranked members of the Guild liked to party; there were just like one, big happy family. At any rate, the three friends managed to decide on a few different courses to try out along with a couple of fizzy drinks and a large glass pitcher of water, although what made IF raise an eyebrow was when Falcom ordered nine mugs of ale. The Guild Agent decided to question the redhead adventuress about it as she and the others made their way towards the only unoccupied table in the entire pub, making sure that they did not bump into drunken or fazed Guild members along the way as they carried the water, fizzy drinks and the ale to their table.

"Ale? Really? Since when did you get into alcohol, Falcom?" IF asked with a curious tone as she sat down on a varnished, wooden seat in front of a varnished table alongside Compa as the redhead adventuress sat on the other side.

"Huh? Oh, all of this? I'm not going to be drinking all of it, there's three for me, three for Compa and three for you. We're sharing. Don't start thinking that I'm an alcoholic all of a sudden, I never have been and I never will be, I promise you that," Falcom replied, not fully giving IF a straight answer as she gave the brunette three mugs of ale, which she took hesitantly.

"Come on, just give me a proper answer already," the Guild Agent grumbled as she stared sternly at the adventuress across the table.

Falcom chuckled before taking a quick sip out of her first mug of ale, sighing with relief as she placed the modest sized mug back down onto the table. "Well, do you remember when I said that I recently travelled with some interesting people? It all ties in with that. You see, some time ago, a couple of weeks or so if I remember corectly, I ran into an odd group who wandered the wilderness of Gamindustri. They were strange, the oddest set of people I've met for a long time. Anyway, since they were so strange I decided to stroll along with them for a couple of days, and they let me. After a few days of delving into dungeons and visiting old ruins, these guys had me sit around a camp-fire and began to tell me stories about the ancient past over a couple of mugs of ale."

"A couple you say?" IF asked with suspicion.

Falcom chuckled and rubbed the back of her head with embarrassment. "Well, actually, it was more than that. It was a lot. I mean, a _lot_! Anyway, that's where I got my taste for ale, so excuse me if I happen to like the sensation of it."

Just then a waitress carrying three plates came over and set them down in front of IF, Compa and Falcom. The food appeared great to IF's eyes, and from the look in Compa's and Falcom's eyes they too thought the same thing as the Guild Agent. As Compa began to feast away on what looked like a mixture of all sorts of vegetables mixed with fried rice, roast beef and a cup of pudding on the side, the Wind Walker of Gaminudstri turned her attention from the steaming, fresh food on her plate back towards the redhead adventuress. There was still one more question that bothered IF. "So, who were these people you travelled with? You rarely travel with anyone, especially strangers that you know nothing about."

Well, you're right about that, I suppose so," Falcom replied with a mouth full of food, annoying the Guild Agent in the process as pieces of chewed food spat out all over the place. "They called themselves Rangers. Stern, grim, never showing any emotion, good storytellers too. I bumped into them around the Colovian Forest of Lowee when I was doing something for the Guild up there, they helped me out so I decided to travel with them for a while – they never really objected to it."

IF had mixed feelings about the news, especially since she had that talk with Julia earlier during the day. The Rangers. No one knew a lot about them, not even the information that was supposedly kept in the Guild's vaults could inform anyone about their history or intentions. Supposedly, according to Julia the lightning specialist, the Rangers dated back to a time before the founding of the four nations of Gamindustri and were descended from the ancients themselves. Whether that was true was entirely up to debate, but it did at least explain how the Rangers were so great storytellers whenever they decided to publicly show themselves in pubs. However, IF felt that she should be suspicious of them, it was possible that the Rangers were behind the recent drop of quests in the Guild, and according to her contacts it was not just confined in Planeptune, it was global. The Guild Agent decided to question Falcom further about the Rangers, just so she could rest her mind on the matter.

"So, what are these Rangers like? Good? Bad? Opportunists?" IF asked after eating some of her dinner. She could not help but notice that their conversation had piqued the interest of a certain silver haired man who sat alone in the far back corner of the pub, nibbling away at what looked like a toasted sandwich. He seemed normal enough with his black shirt that had the long sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his dark brown pants that were covered in dried dirt and mud, and the black leather boots that were worn; he appeared to fit in with the rest of the crowd, yet there was an aura around him that screamed 'outsider'.

At any rate, it seemed that only IF noticed the young man, and it appeared that he had noticed the Guild Agent as well. When their gazes met both stared at one another for only a few seconds before they parted ways. Compa was oblivious to it, as was Falcom, who had just finished downing a mug of ale before choosing to answer IF's questions. "Hmm, how to put it? I think they are simply travellers who owe no allegiance to anyone except for themselves. I never got to hear the full story of their history, in fact they were a bit too evasive about it for my liking, I didn't get much info out of them. They may be grim, dour and secretive, but they are nice people once you get to know them. Anyway, more feasting and drinking, less talking. Come on, we've got a celebration to deal with now!"

Before IF could respond to that she felt Compa pat her right shoulder gently to gain her attention. "Come on, Iffy, let's just do what everyone else is doing and have a good time celebrating the Guild's anniversary."

The brunette gazed back and forth between Compa and Falcom, her mind argued with itself whether to continue asking questions about the Rangers or to merely content herself to a few hours of eating, drinking and celebrating. In the end, she sighed and gave in to the celebrations. "All right then, Compa, I give in. Let's celebrate together."

Falcom chuckled and raised her second mug of ale cheerfully. "All right then, here's to the three hundredth year of the Guild's founding. Cheers!"

"Cheers!" IF and Compa shouted after Falcom, raising a mug of ale alongside the redhead adventuress and clanking it with her own. Then, to the Guild Agent's surprise, both the adventuring redhead and the nurse-in-training scoffed down an entire mug of ale without pause for breath, amazing yet also concerning her.

Falcom, upon noticing IF's mixed gaze, looked at the brunette and gave her a big grin along with a teasing tone. "Eh? You too scared to drink alcohol, Iffy? Come on, it ain't so bad. But if you're too much of a chicken…"

This made the Wind Walker growl at the redhead adventuress. "I-I'm not a chicken! I'll prove it!"

It amused Falcom how she could push IF's buttons and injure her pride with only a few words, it was easy to accomplish. Now the redhead adventuress and the cheery nurse-in-training watched as IF drink away at her first mug of ale. The Guild Agent took a long sip and drank the ale down before lowering her mug with a surprised look on her face. "This… actually isn't all that bad," she said meekly.

"I know, right? Try not to get too attached to it, you don't want to end up like those guys over there," Falcom said in response, pointing over towards a large, nearby table where a dozen Guild members and agents were in the middle of a drinking contest with no sign of a clear winner, it made Izumi, the small pub staff and even other people from the Guild more than a bit concerned – it did not seem to dangerous at any rate.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to turn out like them. Trust me," IF reassuringly informed Falcom after taking another sip.

Some time later, around ten to twenty minutes at least, Falcom had finished drinking her three mugs of ale and showed no sign of being effected by it, although Compa seemed to be under the smaller effects of the ale due to her reddened cheeks and the occasional slurred word or two; IF was drinking slowly, therefore defending herself from any effects that could occur from prolonged consumption of the alcoholic beverage. As IF finished off the last of her delicious dinner she once more noticed the young, silver haired man who was sitting on his own in the corner of the pub, he appeared to be reading a book now that his toasted sandwich was eaten. There was just something off about him, IF knew it yet could not place it. What was most confusing, however, was when Izumi walked over to him and glared.

"You're not participating with the festivities like you promised," she told the young man, her arms crossed over her chest.

The silver haired man looked up at Izumi and raised an eyebrow, evidently confused as to what she was blabbering about. "I said I would attend the celebration, not play an active role in it. Besides, I'm not a member of the Guild in any form, so I have no reason to be partying as these other people."

The black haired pub owner began to lose her patience with the young man, as was shown in her enraged expression and twitching fingers. "You know full well what I meant. You're supposed to be making friends, not keeping to yourself in this lonely corner."

This time it was the young man who was beginning to lose patience along with his temper. "You can't just force me to do something like that! How'd you think I feel with talking to people that I don't know, eh?!" He then glanced away, crossed his arms and pouted with a saddened look upon his face, his words becoming quiet. "Besides, it' not like I can make any to begin with."

IF was barely paying attention to the conversation between the silver haired man and the usually cheery pub owner, but after hearing that last sentence the Guild Agent had now fully focused her attention towards the discussion. _A loner, eh?_ _With that tsundere-like attitude I'm not too surprised._ IF thought to herself as she gazed at the young man.

Soon enough the dark blue eyed man looked over and unintentionally locked gazes with the brunette for a few seconds, causing him to quickly turn his head away, his cheeks burning a light shade of red. Was he embarrassed? Frightened? Head-over-heels? It was tough for IF to say, but it did not take long for the Guild Agent to realise that her own cheeks were flushed with red. As the emerald green eyed woman looked away and rubbed her face, Compa looked over at her best friend and raised an eyebrow with uncertainty. "Eh, IF, are you all right?" the slightly drunk nurse-in-training asked, doing her best not to slur her words. "You look a little red in the cheeks."

"Heh, it's all thanks to that young guy over in the corner," Falcom replied on IF's behalf, yet not with her consent. As the Wind Walker stuttered and waved her hands around in a failed protest, the redhead adventuress turned around in her seat to see Izumi staring at her with an ever growing smile. It seemed that both Izumi and Falcom had a similar idea. "Say, Izumi, since you're having problems with that guy, why not let him join us for the rest of the party? It probably isn't going to last too long now that over half of the Guild has drunk themselves to sleep."

The young man did not seem to be too impressed with the idea, either that or he was simply confused. The black haired pub owner chuckled, forcefully grabbed the silver haired man by the shoulders, dragged him over to the only empty seat left on the three women's table and sat him next to Falcom, who was having a hard time trying to keep her laughter down to a minimum. At any rate, once the dark blue eyed man had calmed down he glanced around his new surroundings and found it hard to even look at IF, Compa and Falcom, which raised some concerns about his past with women. Regardless, he appeared to be settling in well to a degree when Izumi sighed with relief before she patted the young man's right shoulder gently.

"Hey, don't worry about it. My mother always said that I knew what was best for you, even you believed that at some point. So please, just this once, believe me when I say that hanging out with these three is for the best tonight. So, these three are Falcom, Compa and IF; they don't bite. Anyway, have fun and don't be a complete asshole. I'll be back with some more ale for you lot, especially you, IF, you need more alcohol in you."

This surprised the Guild Agent. "Huh? Me? Why do I need more mugs of ale all of a sudden? I've only drank one entire mug, so why do I need more?"

"You just do. Anyway, treat him well, he isn't all that bad once you get to know him." With that said and done, Izumi walked away through the large and loud crowd back towards the bar counter, ready to dish out any orders that any Guild member might throw her way.

For now the attention of IF, Compa and Falcom was fully directed in the young man's direction, all three eager to know more about the supposedly lonely, silver haired man that was acquainted with Izumi the pub owner. There was an awkward silence for a short time afterwards, but that was eventually cut short by IF. "So, what's your name?" she asked the young man.

"E-Erynor. My name is Erynor," he replied with a bit of involuntary stuttering – it was plainly obvious that, aside from his usual interactions with Izumi, he was pretty nervous around others. "Are you all friends with Izumi?"

"Well, Falcom is," IF responded as she pointed towards the redhead, who gave Erynor a bright grin. The Guild Agent decided to continue on with asking questions. "Are you a part of the Guild? You look weathered enough to be."

Erynor shook his head – it looked like he was slowly starting to get used to his new surroundings, even though he could not fully look at the three women around him. "No, I'm not a part of the Guild, in fact I've never even been near it. I haven't been around for a while, so I really have no intentions of being a part of them."

Compa chuckled and smiled at the young man. "Aw come on, Erynor, it isn't all that bad. It's actually pretty fun when you get used to it."

"So, what do you do for a job if it isn't anything Guild related?" Falcom asked after she ate the last of her food and sighed sadly at the three empty mugs before her. "Are you, by chance, an adventurer? You sure seem weathered enough to be one."

"How could you tell?" Erynor responded with a surprised look in his expression. Not many people could easily tell that he was an adventurer of sorts, at least when he was not wearing his tattered green cloak, leather armour and did not have his weapons around him. The silver haired man could only guess that Falcom was an adventurer, but he asked just to make sure that his thoughts were actually correct – sometimes his thoughts were wrong about many things, which had cost him a couple of punches and kicks in the past. "Let me guess, you're an adventurer as well."

Fortunately for Erynor's mind, he was correct in thinking that Falcom was an adventure, at least an adventure of a sort, according to her anyway. She nodded thoughtfully to herself and gave him a bright smile once more. "Heh, you could say that I'm just like you, an adventure. Well, I actually think of myself as a stock adventuress, but to many people it's all the same thing. Not that I mind it, though."

"Huh, okay then. A stock adventuress, never heard anyone call themselves that before, definitely an interesting way of describing ones self if you ask me," the young man said as he looked down at his feet. "But you know, I've been an adventurer ever since I was a child, which naturally makes me an expert adventurer. The best of the best, a model for all people who aspire such a title."

"Oh really? Funny, coming from someone who seems to be nervous around women all the time, at least from what I've already seen so far," IF remarked with a victorious grin.

"I-I-I'm not n-nervous around women! Not at all! You're just m-making stuff up is all!" Erynor exclaimed, slamming his hands onto the table in a fit of fury that reminded the three women of a specific raven haired CPU. Just then the booming sound of people clanking metal, wood and plastic together along with loud yelling, shouting and laughing seemed to get even louder than before.

Then came the smoke. It appeared that a small fire had started just a short moment ago around a nearby table, caused by someone lighting a cigarette, but it had been put out and left a trail of smoke that floated all over the place. Everyone seemed fine with it though, yet not Erynor, in fact it looked as if he was having a heart attack because of it. The young man began to breathe irregularly, a hand clutched his chest as his eyes bulged, his breathing becoming more raspy and scary. Eventually, Erynor swiftly reached into a pocket and pulled out some sort of light green inhaler with an attachable dark blue lid along with a white cylinder into the light green inhaler frame, which he then proceeded to rip of the lid, press his lips around the now open spot where the lid had been and pressed down on the cylinder, a white gas-like substance appeared for a few seconds and disappeared into the air as the smoke began to be cleared away.

After a couple of minutes of awkward silence between the four of them, Compa finally broke the silence with a single, personal question that made Erynor still in his tracks. "Hey, Erynor, are you asthmatic?"

"Huh? Wh-What are you talking about? Of course I'm not asthmatic, never have been and I never will be. B-Being asthmatic only m-makes you weak; I'm not weak at all," Erynor replied with a major stutter. It was obvious that he was lying, but after seeing how shaken he was the group decided to not question it any further. Even Izumi, who had returned with a tray covered with mugs full of ale, noticed the aura that surrounded the table, causing the pub owner to sigh sadly.

"Um, Erynor, are you feeling all right? If you're feeling a bit under the weather then you should go outside to get some fresh air, it could do you some good," the black haired woman said as she placed down the mugs onto the table, her gaze fixed straight at him.

The young man shook his head as he placed the asthma inhaler away back into a pocket. "No. No, I'm fine, really. I just… I just need some water." Erynor began to pour himself a glass cup of water as he did his best to ignore the others around, keeping his eyes straight on the refreshment before him.

No one felt like talking after that, it would just make things awkward and uneasy again, so it was silently agreed to not talk about what had happened. However, some time after Erynor had finished drinking his cup of water, IF decided to break the awkwardness by asking a different question, hoping that it could change the atmosphere. "So, um, Erynor, what's that you're hiding under your shirt? It's wrapped around your neck," she asked, pointing towards the object.

"Huh? Oh, you mean this?" Erynor responded in a dazed manner as he reached into his shirt and pulled out the oval shaped, bright blue object that he hid underneath the piece of clothing. It was a necklace. The young man removed it from around his neck and handed it over to IF, although there was a slight twitch in the nerves of his hands as he neared the brunette. As IF examined the mysterious stone closely she, Compa and Falcom listened to what Erynor had to say about it. "It's a family heirloom, at least that was what I was told anyway. It's been passed down from generation to generation, although I have no idea why, it was never explained to me."

IF was barely listening to the young man ramble on about his necklace, she was too preoccupied with studying everything about it, there was just something off about it. Soon enough the Guild Agent found something weird with the bright blue stone, something that she had never expected to see in some sort of stone: there was a power symbol in the centre of the magical-like stone. "Huh? A power symbol?" the brunette muttered, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "Did you know about this?"

"Yeah, I did. Hell if I knew why there's something like that in the centre of the damned thing," Erynor replied with a shrug of the shoulders, further indicating that he did not have a single clue as to what was going on with the stone.

After both Falcom and Compa got to take a long look at the mysteriously weird stone and gave it back to Erynor, the group got back to their feasting and drinking, at least Falcom and IF did anyway, Compa was already under the effects of too much alcohol while Erynor merely stared in amazement and shock at how Falcom was able to down several mugs of ale within several minutes while IF followed in her stead as she and the redhead had a showdown. It was frightening to say the least, especially when Compa joined in, even other members of the Guild joined in just to see the popular, and to some people rather good looking, Guild Agent face off in a drinking contest with the adventuring, and to many people beautiful, redhead. Erynor sighed and kept to himself as the drinking got steadily more worse, to him at least. _Well,_ _it isn't as if it'll get any worse._ The young man thought optimistically, hoping that he was right.

* * *

"Yahoooooooo~ Yeah!" IF mumbled in a slurred tone as she pranced about on top of a table, swinging her oversized blue coat around, giving everyone a good view of her legs, upper thighs – which some people, including Erynor, found rather enticing despite it being smallish – as well as do some moves which they never would have imagined; she was surprisingly bendable when it came to dancing around a table.

IF was drunk. Incredibly drunk. So drunk that she practically had become a different person entirely, it was rather scary for Erynor. Meanwhile Compa was out cold and was sleeping on the ground peacefully, Falcom appeared to be suspiciously holding back the adverse effects of the ale and the rest of the Guild was either out cold like Compa or still drinking their life away. The young, silver haired man watched at IF flung her coat away and bellowed in a loud voice, then eventually laughed after belching audibly. "Hahahahaha," the Guild Agent laughed, almost falling over onto her back in the process.

 _What… what the hell is going on? I thought IF was supposed to the be reserved type of person who wouldn't give in to this type of stuff._ Erynor thought as he continued to watch the drunk brunette.

Suddenly IF looked down at Erynor, her eyes half open and her mouth jarred slightly apart, a woozy look was over her. Within an instant the Guild Agent leapt downwards and tackled Erynor to the ground until she was on top of him, her face dangerously close to his own. Then, after a couple of seconds of silence, IF burst out laughing in a childish manner. "Hahahaha! You're so funny, Ery~ You're blushing all over," the brunette said in a chirpy voice as she sat down on his gut. Giving Erynor the nickname 'Ery' was not the most creative thinking, but considering the circumstances it sounded natural

The young man was now panicking. He had a hard time dealing with women already due to a past experience that he would rather forget, but now that he was trapped underneath a drunk woman who could do anything to him at any time it was hard for the young man to feel safe at all. Fortunately for Erynor he had Falcom around to help him, even though he hated to admit that he needed help from someone else. As IF rubbed a hand through Erynor's hair while simultaneously poking his right cheek affectionately, for what reason was beyond either of their knowledge, Falcom the stock adventuress walked over and forcefully pulled the drunk Guild Agent of the twitching young man. "Hey, you all right there? You're twitching all over," Falcom asked him with concern.

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Erynor replied unconvincingly as he got back onto his feet, albeit a bit shaken from the whole ordeal – the young man seemed to be oblivious to the fact that many men, and even some women, would have sacrificed anything to have been in the position he had been in with IF a moment ago. However, Erynor was more concerned about what to do next. "So what now? I don't want to get r-raped by a drunk IF!"

"That would never happen, ever. IF isn't the kind of woman who would do that. True, she may have perverted tendencies hidden deep within her that she may not even know about, but she is harmless – at least that's how I see it, I don't really know the circumstances if she's drunk," the redhead adventuress replied, her smile never going away even as she held IF firmly by the neck. The Guild Agent did not seem to mind it, in fact she appeared to be enjoying it, which was a course for concern. "Anyway, I think the rest of the night would just end up the same way as before, so it's probably best to get IF and Compa back home. Mind helping me out?"

"W-Well, I've got nothing better to do, so I might as well help you out with these two drunkards," Erynor replied in a manner similar to a certain 'loner' of Black Regality, in fact it was similar to all certain people like that.

"Good. Well then, you can start by giving IF a piggyback while I do the same for Compa, then you can follow me to their house." Falcom lowered IF and helped her onto Erynor's back after placing the Agent's coat back over her, which he then proceeded to hold her in place as the Wind Walker wrapped her arms around his neck in a half asleep state. As soon as the same thing had been achieved with Compa, the small group excused themselves out of the Purple Progress Pub with a still cheery Izumi waving a 'goodbye' to them.

Falcom appeared to know where IF and Compa's house was, so Erynor let the redhead take the lead as they made their way to the Guild Agent and nurse-in-training's residence. Along the way Erynor looked up at the night sky so he could put his mind at ease, the coldness of the dark sky alongside the twinkling stars did the job well, for his twitching soon disappeared. However, the stock adventuress had watched the nervous young man calm himself down, and now she was curious about it. "Say, Erynor, are you… afraid of women?" she asked with a calm voice.

"Wh-Wh-Wha?! N-N-No way! Of c-course I'm not!" Erynor exclaimed in response, shocking Falcom for a moment.

However, the drunk brunette that clung to the silver haired man's back and neck did not seem to grasp the situation at hand. IF leaned her face down beside Erynor's and continuously poked him on the cheeks with a goofy grin on her face. "Heheheheh. Ery's afraid of women. Awww, he's so cute when he gets all pouty~"

"Is she always like this?" Erynor asked, doing his best to ignore the drunk IF's endless teasing.

The redhead adventuress shook her head. "No, not at all. She's a lot more reserved than this when acting normally, guess the alcohol switched her personality for a more childish and perverted one. Who would have thought that the almighty tomboy had a different side to her? Heh, if only I had it all on recording."

"That's a little mean, but I don't blame you." The conversation went dry afterwards, not that Erynor minded, he was not much of a conversationalist after all. That was the case, until the group neared Compa and IF's house. It was when they neared it that Erynor asked Falcom a question that had been burning in his mind for a while. "So, how did you manage to not get as drunk as IF and Compa?"

The redhead gave the young man a cheeky grin as they got closer to the house. "Well, let's just say that I'm a lot more sneakier at certain things than IF is. Getting rid of alcohol without anyone noticing is one of them."

 _She's pretty cunning, guess I underestimated her after all._ Erynor thought as he approached the front door, ignoring the blabbering slur of IF's drunken haze. "You got the key to their place?"

Falcom nodded as soon as she grabbed a hold of Compa's keys and unlocked the door in front of them, revealing the rather spacious hallway that led towards the living room. After closing the door behind them the group staggered into the living room before finding Compa and IF's respective rooms, both Falcom and Erynor were eager to put them to bed for the night so they too could go to sleep at whatever place they were staying at. As Erynor tucked IF into her bed, amazed with how her room appeared to be tidy, the Guild Agent mumbled some gibberish before opening her eyes, a drunken, goofy grin had returned to her face. "Heheheh. Ery, you should play with us sometime. C'mon, it'll be fuuuuuunnn…. Ugh."

With that said and done IF fell asleep, much to the young man's silent joy. Although he was confused with what the drunk woman was trying to say. However, he did not even had to ask about it thanks to Falcom, who had entered the room. "Hmm, sounds like she wants you to join her on a quest or two tomorrow, or the day after," the redhead said, nodding to herself thoughtfully. "Heh, sounds like she sees something interesting in you. IF is pretty good at seeing things like that. Think of it as a compliment."

"If you say so," Erynor replied, silently admiring the peaceful look that IF had in her sleepy expression. "Hmm, I guess it wouldn't hurt to go out on a quest or two, I'm not really doing anything for the next few days anyway, so I suppose I can waste some time with you lot."

"Yeah, that's the spirit, you tsundere," Falcom said in a cheeky manner as she and the young man began to leave the house, laughing and bickering as they left.

"I am not a tsundere!" came the response as Erynor pouted at Falcom, his nerves twitching uncontrollably as the redhead adventuress closed and locked the front door, leaving the key under the mat with a note jammed in the door frame. As they finally parted ways, eager for a good night sleep, IF rustled around in her bed, never letting her goofy grin escape her. It had been a good anniversary party, although if IF could even remember the details of the night once she woke up was another matter entirely.

* * *

 **A/N: Writer's Block – it is a pain to deal with, yet we all have it at the worst of times, but at least I managed to get the latest chapter out. Personally, I think I might have rushed the ending a bit, but another part of me is saying that it's fine, not sure which side I should believe. So, Erynor, this is the first male tsundere that I've ever created, and the first asthmatic character that I've even introduced. Honestly, I don't know how it's going to turn out – originally he wasn't going to be a tsundere, but I thought 'hey, why not'. Also, a drunk IF… that's kinda how I imagine it would play out, something along those lines at least. Anyway, if you have any suggestions please do inform me, have a good day and I'll see – read – you all in the next chapter.**


	4. The Library of Old

**Chapter 4: The Library of Old**

Light. Painful light. It made IF groan in a mixed tone of annoyance and sleepiness. Then there was something else as well, something unbearable: pain. Pain in the head. It ached badly around the forehead, in fact it felt as if it would explode at any moment. The Guild Agent of Planeptune grumbled in an unintelligent language as she began to flail around as slow as a snail in her bed, never getting anywhere despite a whole lot of bad effort to move her limbs around. "Ugh. Wha… What happened? Why is my head in so, so much pain?"

The long haired brunette groaned audibly in a way that sounded like an Ancient Dragon had drank alcohol for twenty days straight, bashed its head against a cave wall for over an hour before finally passing out for a week and waking up in the middle of a closed off area with boulders stacked on top. An interesting feeling indeed, and one that she did not want to experience again. The Guild Agent groaned, rubbed her head and began to regain her vision as she leaned upwards, the bed sheets falling down from her. With a loud and slothful grown, IF regained most of her vision before looking down to see that she was wearing the same clothes from last night, not to mention that she was having problems remembering what happened.

"Ugh. Wha… What happened? My head hurts, my vision is cloudy and I'm wearing the same clothes from last night, except for my coat," the Guild Agent muttered half-heartedly. "How did I get here? There better be a good reason for all this."

All of a sudden IF heard audible groans coming from outside her room, and they sounded familiar. A couple of seconds later the brunette watched as her bedroom door was opened and a very woozy Compa entered the room. The bright haired woman's eyes were droopy, her posture was slouchy and she constantly groaned every few seconds. Once Compa stood next to IF's bed, the nurse-in-training looked down at her friend and groaned once again before speaking in a slurred tone. "Hey there, Iffy, wha… uh, what happened last night? I… can't remember what happened."

"Neither can I, and I don't know if I want to," the Guild Agent replied, rubbing the back of her head before massaging her throat as a tinge of dryness appeared. After a couple of seconds of thinking over her words, IF then added another comment in response to Compa and herself."Actually, scratch that, I _want_ to know what the hell happened last night. Did… we get drunk? I can smell alcohol in your breath, Compa."

"I can smell it in your breath too, Iffy. We must've had too much to drink with Falcom and Erynor," the nurse-in-training responded, rubbing her forehead in the process. "Maybe we really did get drunk and were taken home by Falcom and Ery."

"I guess you're right, hopefully. I hope nothing crazy happened back at the pub, or anything… lewd," the emerald eyed woman mumbled in a sluggish manner, yet she muttered the last part about possible 'lewdness' quietly and to herself. _Yeah, I hope nothing like that actually happened, that would be pretty bad for me. H-Hold on, Erynor was there, and he did look kinda c-cute… Oh no. D-D-Did I do s-s-s-something with h-him?! No. No no no no no no no! Wh-Wh-What if we did_ th-that _together? I heard that being drunk makes you do some pretty crazy stuff, and we both had a lot of ale, at least I think he did…_

IF's thoughts were interrupted by a very concerned and woozy Compa, who staggered about for a few seconds while tapping her friend on the shoulder. "H-Hey, Iffy, you alright? You're cheeks are all red."

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine, just thinking about what to wear before I go and have a shower," IF lied, although now that she had said it her thoughts did indeed turn towards what to wear after a refreshing shower.

Compa nodded in agreement, thinking that having a shower once IF was finished using the bathroom was a good idea; she had to go to work and needed to be in top condition. IF too had work to do, Guild work to be exact. Even if there was not a whole lot of good quests to sign up for thanks to the elusive Rangers clearing it beforehand, the Wind Walker of Gamindustri was not going to be put off by it, unlike many of her colleagues who had already given up due to the lack of good quests that yield any reasonable profit. But first, she had to get a whole lot better and get over her painful headache.

The Guild Agent groaned as she got onto her feet, but she soon quickly realised that rushing onto her feet was not the best idea she had thought of. Within a matter of seconds IF quickly staggered around and collapsed back onto her bed on her back, groaning in an unintelligent tone. "Ugh. The room is spinning… I feel like I'm gonna vomit all over the place."

After a couple of more minutes of laying on her bed, IF finally managed to gain enough willpower and energy to get onto her feet and walk towards the drawer where some of her clothes were stored, mostly her tops, shorts, stockings, high socks and underwear; the cupboard next to the drawer was still filled with a few coats. What IF grabbed was a black shirt, a short pair of shorts, a grey and white belt wit ha large buckler, a pair of black stocking-like socks that reached up to her upper legs and her coat that had some extra enhancements to it. The black shirt had white lining around the edges and a silver zipper that ran down the middle of the shirt, the shirt would show some of the belly if it was worn, and it reached up to the neck. The shorts were rather short, shorter than what was usually worn, although IF did wear clothes like that nearly all of the time. The belt was unlike some belts worn in Gamindustri due to it being rather wide with a large buckle.

Once IF had picked these clothes out, along with some dark blue boots that reached up to the middle of her lower legs, the Guild Agent did her best to walk herself out of her room, through the corridor and straight towards the bathroom. The bathroom itself was not large, but it was also not small. The walls and floor were made of creamy white tiles with elaborate iliac and brown patterns, all of which were merely swirls of different sizes. The bathroom was occupied by a white sink with a mirror in the corner of the room, two towel racks, a cupboard with several drawers around the sink, a bath in another corner and finally a shower cubicle with glass panelling and a glass door. Everything looked absolutely spotless, not a single piece of dust could be spotted, and no clothes could be seen hanging around. Compa liked to keep the house clean, very clean. In fact, the last time there was any major mess was when IF was attempting to cook something in the kitchen, which did not end so well.

Once IF remembered the time she made a mess of the kitchen, she closed and locked the door before getting undressed and stepping onto the shower, after turning it on of course. It took the Wind Walker of Gamindustri a minute or two to get fully used to the temperature of the water, but once she had done it the Guild Agent fully immersed herself in cleaning her body thoroughly as best she could, afraid that she might have had picked something up from the pub. IF had a little bit of trouble standing up in the shower, but she soon got back control over her nerves and limbs. As the brown haired woman washed her long hair thoroughly with a hair cleansing agent, she began to think over what exactly happened the previous night. There were some things that she could guess, all of them either embarrassing or what she thought was lewd.

"So what did I actually do? I… I remember something about having a drinking contest with Compa, Falcom and Erynor. Then there was something about… dancing, dancing on a table after having too much to drink; wow, that's embarrassing to even remember," IF began to recount to herself as she then began to soap her arms up. "What else… what else…"

It was then that IF just remembered something, something that her subconscious had tried to hold back, but it was no use. The Guild Agent's face shone bright red with extreme embarrassment as she remembered something. It seemed that her initial guess that something lewd might have happened between her and Erynor was right. IF leaned up against the tiled wall of the shower and began to blurt out stammered words to herself, which usually happened whenever something completely and highly embarrassing was remembered. "No. No no no no no! Wh-Wh-Wy did I do to Erynor?! I-I-I didn't mean to tackle him like that! D-Did I do something to him afterwards? Maybe something like… N-N-N-NO!"

Suddenly IF heard Compa knocking on the bathroom door, then she spoke a few seconds later. "Hey, Iffy, are you all right? I heard you say something in a disrupted and worried tone. Ugh, my head…"

"Wh-Wha? Oh, I-I'm fine, Compa, really," IF replied back in a hurried tone, once she realised Compa was trying to speak to her from the other side of the bathroom door. However, the Guild Agent did not sound so convincing, but Compa as too busy dealing with her migraine.

"Well, if you insist, Iffy," the nurse-in-training replied as best she could. After what sounded like slurred mumbling, Compa spoke again. "I'm going to make some breakfast for us to eat, don't take too long. Remeber, Iffy, I need to use the shower, too. Would've been easier if we shared it together…"

That just merely made IF even more embarrassed. "N-N-No way, Compa! Th-That's just embarrassing to even think about!" She then sighed and shook her head, finding herself almost ready to leave the shower now that she was a lot cleaner and her headache was not as bad as before. "Just give me another minute or two, I'm almost finished in here."

After spending exactly two extra minutes in the shower, the Wind Walker finished off her time in the shower by turning the taps off and leaving the shower itself to get dried off before putting all her clothes on, which took a bit of time due to a loss of willpower thanks to all the alcohol she had consumed during the time at the Purple Progress Pub. It was when IF had gotten all her chosen clothes on and was in the middle of drying her long, brown hair when the doorbell rang loudly throughout the house, echoing through the corridors and rooms. IF grimaced at the sound, for her migraine had yet to fully go away.

"Ugh, who the hell is it at this time of the day? Actually, what time is it?" IF grumbled as she massages her forehead with her right hand while her left threw the towel away, her sense of care for it gone.

The Guild Agent opened the bathroom door, her old clothes wrapped around her left arm. Once she threw it all into her room, IF made her way down to the kitchen and the living room, when the doorbell rang again. The nurse was nowhere in sight, yet a light and cute snore from her room indicated that Compa had fallen asleep, again. With a disgruntled grumble due to Compa not around to open the door, the brown haired woman marched over to the front door and opened it. Much to her surprise, the person waiting on the other side of the front door was none other than Erynor, who looked at IF with a stoic expression. It was more than what IF did. Instead of greeting the young man, or even simply wave at him, instead she swiftly remembered what she thought happened last night and began to blush brightly. "E-E-Erynor?! Wh-What are you doing here?"

"Well hello to you, too," Erynor grumbled in response to IF's outburst, clearly taking it as something offensive. He was holding a small piece of paper in his left hand while his right was beginning to grip onto a satchel that was hanging down the right hand side of his belt; there seemed to be something in there, and it sounded like liquid from what the Guild Agent could hear.

However, IF was more concerned with why the bow wielding young man was here, and how he managed to find his way to the house, plus Falcom was not around. After taking a quick look at the piece of paper in Erynor's hands, the brown haired woman deduced that it was a map with instructions that led him to her and Compa's residence. "So, what are you doing here exactly?" IF asked before suddenly groaning in pain.

" _That's_ what I'm here for, at least for the moment anyway," the young man responded, pointing a finger at the Guild Agent's forehead. "I cooked up an elixir for you and Compa this morning before I decided to come here and visit you. You two can thank me later for helping you get rid of that migraine. Remember to lay off the drinks next time."

"Um… yeah, about what happened back there, I'm, um… I-I-I' ms-sorry for what happened," IF apologised, even going so far as to bow as well. "I-I didn't mean to do anything lewd to y-you! D-D-Did we… you know… um, d-do 'it' together? Th-There's a large gap in my memory after I t-t-tackled you. P-People say that drinking makes people do c-crazy things…"

It took Erynor a short moment to fully understand what IF was saying, but when the young man finally processed what she was saying he quickly started to blush brightly with pure embarrassment; apparently the thought of them 'doing it' together made him more than simply embarrassed. "Wh-Wh-What the h-hell are you suggesting?! W-We never did anything l-l-lewd like that! All you did was tackle me to the ground, get affectionate and then I had to carry you here while Falcom carried Compa here. Nothing lewd, well, too lewd, happened."

This conformation deeply satisfied the Guild Agent, she was happy with the news. The thought of doing anything lewd with a guy she had only met that night was frightening. She sighed with relief and wiped her forehead from all the sweat that had been building up there, only for her migraine to return with extra force. The Wind Walker of Gamindustri staggered over to the wall and massaged her forehead, grumbling away with annoyance while she did that. "Ugh, bloody headache. Remind me never to drink alcohol ever again," she grumbled to no one in particular.

"Noted and remembered," the young man said as he closed the front door and walked to the living room. "Anyway, I'm here to get rid of that migraine that you and Compa undoubtedly have. As I already stated, I've made an elixir for you both to drink, hopefully it'll work. Been a long time since I made something like this, so I'm not too sure what the result will be, but hopefully it will work – no, I know it will work, I did make it after all."

"Well that reassuring to know," IF said in a very sarcastic tone, which was not lost on Erynor at all. "So then, can you tell me where the hell Falcom is? Since you're here, I thought she would come along as well."

As the dark blue eyed man placed his satchel on the kitchen counter and began to rummage through it, he looked back at IF and responded to what she had said, and also explained the other reason why he was in their house. "Huh, Falcom? Oh, the redhead adventuress, right. Well, she's off again, apparently she had business to the north around Lowee, apparently something about having unfinished business with a bandit who tried to ambush her a while back. Anyway, Falcom gave me directions here. Also, last night you said you wanted to 'play' with me, that adventuress translated it to something about Guild work. Guess it wouldn't hurt to give it a try, but you should be even lucky that I decided to play along."

 _Jeez, where does this guy come from? Lastation? He's got the arrogant pride for it. Bloody tsundere._ IF thought to herself as she stared at Erynor with narrowed eyes, watching him with a stern look as the young man scavenged through his satchel. After a couple of seconds of waiting around, the Guild Agent watched as the silver haired man pulled out two leather flasks filled with some sort of liquid, which was undoubtedly the 'elixirs' that Erynor had spoken about. IF gazed at the flask that the dark blue eyed man held after he flipped his dark green hood back, her interest in had only grown, but her concern had doubled. "So, that's supposed to help me with this headache? Doesn't sound possible to me."

"It only sounds impossible because you've never seen or felt it work before. Trust me on this, IF. It'll work, not only because I created it with my superior alchemical skills but also because I know it will. Trust me," Erynor responded as he shook the flask around ever so slightly. He then opened the top and gave the brown, leather flask to the Guild Agent, who took it warily. She looked back at the silver haired man as a questioning stare was thrown in his direction, which only seemed to make him rather grumpy. "Look, do you want to get better nor not? I didn't have to waste my time creating two elixirs for you and Compa so you two could get over your hangovers, I could have just left Planeptune and wandered off into the wilderness on my own. Even I have important things to do."

"Ugh. Fine then, I'll drink the damn thing already." IF grumbled back in response, not liking Erynor's tone of voice at all. The Guild Agent leaned her head back and emptied the entire content of the flask into her mouth and down her throat. The liquid tasted sour, but it had a punch to it, as if it had been spiced by some of the healing regenerative abilities of Healing Grass. Once IF had set the flask down on the kitchen counter she felt a bit more renewed, but her hangover was not completely gone. "Hey, I thought you said that it would work. It isn't working, Erynor."

The bow wielding young man seemed offended, and was quick to correct the Guild Agent. "I didn't say it would work instantly, did I? It isn't like a Healing Bottle, or a Healing Pod, it just takes a little bit of time for the effects to fully kick in. you'll be your old self in about… oh, say twenty minutes, maybe fifteen or ten if I got the formula right."

IF would have disagreed and argued with the young man, but she was feeling a little more lightened up and more upbeat than before, plus her headache was slowly starting to disappear, so the Guild Agent found no reason to argue with Erynor. At least on the point regarding the elixirs anyway, there was still a lot that IF could argue about, mainly the silver haired man's personality, but also his choice of weapons. For the moment, however, the blue coated woman decided to question what Erynor's business in Planetpune was, it sounded suspicious. "Well, um, thanks for that, wasn't expecting you to be the generous type. Anyway, what's all this about having some business down here?"

"Huh? Oh, that? It's nothing much. Some woman in Lastation wants me to find her a couple of old books from an ancient library, apparently she heard a rumour about it from some adventures in the Planeptune and Lastation Guilds," the young man responded as he took back IF's flask and placed it in his satchel. "Unfortunately, for this woman at least, no one knows where it is located, until now, so I guess she is fortunate. Found the location of the old library in an ancient ruin that had been turned into a dungeon, cleared that out yesterday, many hours before that party in fact. When I told Falcom and Izumi about it they insisted that I had to take you and Compa along, or at least you if that ditzy nurse was too busy. Interested?"

The Guild Agent rubbed the back of her for a moment before scratching her chin thoughtfully; she had mixed feelings about it, something about the whole job just did not sound like proper Guild work. With that in mind, IF decided to ask about it. "So is this a quest from the Lastation Guild or the Planeptune Guild? Or is this not official work?"

"How can anything be truly official? That is a subjective term, and one that I do not like to use. It is work, simple as that," Erynor responded with a deeply serious tone, one that the Guild Agent was surprised to hear. It sounded as if he had been asked this question many times before. "We will be paid, once I get the books to this Lastation woman. Of course, it is highly possible that this ancient library is a dungeon, and the thing about ancient dungeons is how well stocked in old goods they are."

The Guild Agent rubbed her forehead, silently amazed with how well the hangover remover elixir was working, then she realised what the young man was doing: enticing her with vague promises of possible wealth. "You're just trying to bribe me into coming along, aren't you?"

Erynor chuckled slightly and rubbed the back of his neck nervously, as if he remembered something that he did not want to. "Ugh. Listen, if I don't do this and take you with me then Izumi will give me a head noggin, and I _really_ don't want another one." The silver haired man then shivered on the spot, his apparent fear of women teasing and harassing him was showing itself once more. "Just come along, okay? I don't want to get bullied by Izumi again."

The Wind Walker of Gamindustri sighed, shook her head and finally gave in to the request. "All right then, Erynor, you win. I'll accompany you to wherever this ancient library is, I have to repay you for the elixir anyway. I doubt Compa will be coming along, last I heard of her she was sleeping in her room. Once I have some breakfast I'll write a note to Compa, explaining what's going on, then we can get going."

* * *

"H-H-Hey! Slow down already!" Erynor shouted at the top of his lungs, his grip on the motorbike seat tightened, yet the young man felt as if he would fly off at any moment, and he made his thoughts very clear. "If you keep at this speed then I'm going to fall off! Just slow down!"

"Oh quit being a whiny baby and shut up already," IF grumbled back in harsh tone, her eyesight remaining directly ahead of her to avoid any accidents on the road. "Look, wouldn't it be more simpler for you to have your arms around my waist? That way you wouldn't be able to fall off."

"Th-That would be just too e-embarrassing!" the silver haired man responded with a loud and frightened voice. "D-Do we really need to ride your damn motorbike out here in the wilderness? It isn't worth while!"

"Because it's simply much more quicker than your proposal of walking to the location, that would have taken a while you know," the Wind Walker merely said in response, making it obvious that she did not care about the bow wielding man's concerns at all.

The two were heading towards the supposed location of the ancient library that Erynor had located the other day, and IF declared that it was more efficient for them to drive her motorbike to wherever the library of old was situated at. This, of course, meant that they would have to drive through the wild to get to the hidden library, but once the location of the library was spilled the Guild Agent knew where to head towards and what paths to take, hence the vehicle of choice. The ancient library was located south-east of Planeptune City in a place covered by a forest. Most of Planeptune south of the capital was essentially forests and mountain ranges that dotted the landscape from the southern coast to the south-west coast; the western coast was made up of various mountains, small forest patches and a large patch of land in the centre that separated the west coast and Planeptune City, the northern most part of Planeptune had snowy field and trees thanks to its border with Lowee.

But the landscape and everything that was attached to it mattered little to IF at that point in time, although her silver haired tsundere companion would have had something to say about that, if he had known that and was able to even speak without yelling for the Guild Agent to stop the motorbike. At least they were driving down a dirt path and not in the forest and mountain paths, if they had been doing that then Erynor would had simply leapt off the motorbike and make a run for it to the location of the library on foot. At any rate, the silver haired man decided to put up with the ride, apparently the ancient library was nearby, just to the south through what was left of the dirt path and a lightly filled forest. Soon enough the two of them finally arrived at the south-eastern most edge of Virtua Forest. There they found what looked like some crumbled, old, weather-worn stones that dotted the landscape in all directions, including broken down pillars and what could have been once a marble door frame; none of the ruins were exactly high and all were covered in vines.

IF stopped the motorbike near what had once been a gate to the settlement – all that was left of it was two broken pillars – and entered through the smashed cobblestone path alongside Erynor, who looked around him with saddened eyes, much to the Guild Agent's surprise. "Is something up with you, Erynor?" she asked him with a small hint of concern.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine," the bow wielding man responded while keeping his distance from IF, which mattered little to her. "I think the library must be up ahead, probably around the small wall there and just in the most intact building of them all."

IF looked at Erynor as if he was crazy. "Intact? _That_ building? It's just as worn down as the others."

"Yeah, I know that already, but it looks more refined and in better shape than the others, considering its age and all that," the silver haired man replied back, his tone far from being friendly, not even his gaze was far from friendly, neither was IF's for that matter.

Despite what had happened the previous night in the Purple Progress Pub and during the late morning, the two of them were not on the best of terms, which was an odd thing for the Guild Agent, considering she was friendly with mostly everyone she met. A few people said that was the case because IF just wanted to act friendly, but deep down it was said that the Wind Walker of Gamindustri was rather cold, calculating, harsh and someone who would rather be alone. Of course, it was all rumours and IF cared not about it all, but there seemed to be some truth to it, as Erynor had found it on the way to the ancient library, both on vehicle and on foot. The two of them just seemed incompatible with one another, in fact, if IF and Erynor were a married couple they would have already moved houses after a fight, get custody over a kid or two, file a divorce and never think about each other ever again for as long as they lived. It would have been like that, at least according to whoever could have seen them at that point of time, to which nobody else was around.

Erynor approached the remains of what he believed to the library, which only consisted of some ruined walls that barely reached up to nine metres tall with what looked like some rooms inside. The young man peered his head in, gave the area a quick look before entering. IF quickly followed Erynor and entered the supposed library. Once the Guild Agent stepped foot inside the large, ruined building she was met by what she described as an amazing sight; sun rays glaring through broken windows and walls, centuries of year old dust floated around the area, the mere sight of broken walls, pillars, shelves, doorways and even the floor just seemed amazing to behold. IF really did have a deep interest in the ancient past, at least to some extent, mostly with just the ruins themselves, the rest of the ancient past was not as interesting due to a lack of knowledge of what happened back then.

The library of old appeared to be devoid of life, and objects that resembled books for that matter, so whatever they were looking for did not seem to be there, not that IF had any clue as to what she and Erynor were looking for, all she knew was that they were looking for the ancient library that the woman in Lastation – who was apparently an archaeologist who loved ancient ruins – had heard about from some Guild Members from the Lastation Guild, who also happened to have been killed while searching for it. As Erynor looked around the different aisles, searching high and low for something, or anything really, the Guild Agent came across something that interested her. It was a room with a collapsed doorway, yet the walls were still up with only minor cracks in it, not to mention that there was something inside the room itself, she could tell thanks to the sunlight.

"Hey, Erynor, I think I found something here," IF said to the silver haired man with a raised voice. Soon enough Erynor had returned and looked at where the Wind Walker was pointing towards. "There's something behind here, I can tell by the way the sunlight shines over it. Got a way of smashing through it?"

The young man shook his head. "No, I haven't got anything that can do that. We could simply try moving the rubble away to get through, but that would take ages. Maybe you could use a special attack? An EXE drive or attack or whatever the hell you Guild people call it? That might work, depending on the force of the attack."

"I don't think I have any kind of attack that can deal with this problem," IF mumbled back as she began to move rubble away from the collapsing doorway, one piece at a time. She looked back at Erynor after a minute and stared sternly at him. "Well? You going to help out here?"

"Do I even have a choice with you around?" Erynor grumbled back in response before starting to help with the moving rubble project.

After what felt like hours of moving rubble about, the two of them finally managed to move their way through to the other side by dislodging all the rubble in their path, then they stared at what was waiting for them on the other side. It was a safe, a very large safe covered in rust. But it was not just any normal safe, for this one had strange symbols carved into it, no buttons or numbers could be seen, and it was built into the wall directly behind it. Surrounding it was a large number of marble shelves packed with books, but just about all of them had been worn down completely.

"Extraordinary," was all Erynor could say about it.

However, for some reason or another, IF felt drawn to the safe. As the dark blue eyed man began to search through the shelves and take occasional glances at the safe, wondering if any of the books had information about it, the Guild Agent approached the ancient object and felt something stir within her, something that reminded the brown haired woman of her dreams. Just as the Wind Walker of Gamindustri was about to touch the safe, the ground below their feet grumbled and began to crumble, causing both Erynor and IF to through accusing gazes at each other, as if one of them had caused the quake to begin with. Then suddenly the floor collapsed and caved in, sending IF, Erynor, the safe, old books and tones of stone, marble and old rubble down into the darkness bellow. What awaited down below no one knew, nor did they want to guess.

* * *

 **A/N: Heh. Wished I had included some lewdish fan service? Yeah, was thinking about that, but ultimately decided to keep it family friendly; just use your imagination, that'll fix everything. Been a while since I uploaded a chapter of Flame Awakening Advent, and I'm damn glad I managed to get through it at last. Things have been mixed with me. Writer's Block, modding games, fatigue from a lack of sleep and even a deficiency in my motivation for writing. I've been thinking of taking a break every now and then, and I probably will need to take one before I get back to university. Anyway, sorry to leave it off with a cliffhanger, wasn't originally going to do it, but I thought it would've been a nice addition to the chapter. I'm not too sure when the next chapter will come out, since I have some other stories to attend to first, but I am planning on a new chapter, plus I personally want to see more IF action in the archives, hence this fanfic. Regardless, thank you all being patient, I hope you enjoyed it so far and have a good day if possible.**


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